The Mt Gravatt Lady Who’s Gone from World-Class Track Sprinter to Rugby Sevens Olympian

Former Clairvaux Mackillop College student, Kaitlin Shave, will represent Mt Gravatt and Australia in Paris and her story is fascinating.



At Runcorn State School, her primary years left her teachers in no doubt she could run fast. By the time she had moved to Clairvaux Mackillop, she was already considered a state-level spinter, but the next leg up to become considered one of the fastest women in Australia was when she dead-heated for the 100 metres in the Under 17s Australian Athletic Championships in Sydney in 12.07 seconds.

Intensive training followed to “shave” hundreds of a second under the 12-second mark as her coaches, Sharon and Chris Dale, pushed her down to an 11.92 PB. Her parents and grandparents were omnipresent at her meets.

She went on to have a brief stint playing University 7s for Bond Uni in 2018 and then played in the NRL touch premiership for the Brisbane Broncos, leading to a 2019 grand final win against the Paramatta Eels.

However, ironically, she only caught the eye of Australian coach, Tim Walsh, when playing for the Balkans Honet Badgers in a tournament in South Africa.

Initially, she travelled with the Australian team to a tournament in Vancouver as a 13th non-playing member of the squad.

Kaitlin’s confidence grew as she gained more big game experience and her game-winning try in Cape Town in 2023 took that to a new level.

Her Olympic campaign will kick off at midnight on Monday Brisbane time, 29 July, with a game against South Africa in Pool B.

Shave and the Aussie squad will then take on Great Britain at 3:30 a.m. Brisbane time later that morning and Ireland at 10:30 p.m. Brisbane time on the same day.



The results of the three pools will then determine the quarter finals – the top two from each group and two of the three third places advancing to the last eight. Fingers crossed that Kaitlin will be on the field for the final, scheduled for 3:45 a.m. on Wednesday 31 July Brisbane time.

Kaitlin Shave and the Australian Women's Sevens Rugby Team Schedule