Australian Olympic champion Ellia Green reveals transition to male

Rugby Sevens and NRLW star Ellia Green has opened up about his life changing, and life saving, transition to being a male.

Australian rugby sevens Olympic gold medallist and NRLW star Ellia Green has announced he has transitioned to male.

The 29-year-old has kept the same name, but revealed to The Associated Press in the United States that transitioning was the best decision of his life after suffering depression and being admitted to mental health facilities.

Green has gone public with his transition in the hope his story can be life changing and even “life saving” – for others who struggling with their gender and identity.

The former New Zealand Warriors NRLW star joins Caitlyn Jenner and Quinn – a Canadian women’s soccer player from Tokyo 2021 – as the only transgender or gender-diverse Olympic gold medallists.

Ellia Green has opened up about his transition. Picture: AAP Image/Craig Golding

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, Fijian-born Green was the face and scintillating star of Australia’s famous rugby sevens gold medal glory.

But Green admits being in a “dark place” after signing off from his rugby and rugby league career at the end of last year, and wants to play a part in drawing attention to the shocking rates of trans youth attempting suicide.

“This is what happened to me,” Green told The AP.

“Pretty much my rugby career ended and I had been in and out of mental-health facilities for serious issues. My depression hit a new level of sadness.”

Ellia Green (R) with partner Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts. Picture: John Appleyard

Green says he and partner, Vanessa Turnbull-Roberts are now in a happy place with their infant daughter, Waitui.

“Vanessa was pregnant and having to come to hospital to visit,” Green said.

“I was having bad episodes. That’s the last time I want her to have to see me like that. But the only way to help heal is to talk about it … I’d like to help someone not feel so isolated by telling my story.”

Green was assigned female at birth and was adopted by Yolanta and Evan Green when she moved to Australia from Suva age 3.

In an extensive interview with AP, Green has opened up on witnessing Yolanta become a victim of domestic violence in another relationship which “caused a lot of long-lasting trauma.”

“I guess from witnessing that, I knew from an early age that was not (the kind of) relationship I wanted to have, but it shaped me to know how a woman should be treated,” Green said.

“I do believe that even through traumatic circumstances there was a lot to learn from it.”

Green has revealed that even from a young age there was a realisation about his identity.

“As a kid I remember I thought I was a boy in public. I had a short (haircut) and whenever we met new people they thought I was a boy,” Green said.

“I always used to wear my brother’s clothes, played with tools and ran around with no shirt on. Until I grew breasts, and I thought, ‘Oh no’.

“My mum would dress me in girlie outfits … I always wanted to make her happy, so if she wanted me to wear a dress, I wore a dress.”

Green was a lightning fast winger and one of the stars of Australia’s extraordinary gold medal win over New Zealand in the first ever Olympic sevens final.

But his final months in rugby, away from the public eye after missing selection for the Tokyo Olympics, represented a dark struggle.

“I spent a lot of time after I finished up my career with Australian rugby just in the house, in a dark room. I didn’t have the confidence to see anyone,” Green said.

“I was ashamed of myself. I felt I had let a lot of people down, especially myself and my mum.

“I felt like a complete failure, it was heartbreaking.

“The one thing that did keep me positive is that I had already planned my surgery and treatment towards my transition. It was something I was counting down the days with my partner.”

Now Green works on the wharves at the Sydney International Container Terminal and is also studying international security at university.

Green has been motivated to speak out, angry about the discrimination he believes transgender athletes are being subjected to.

He wants to be an inspiration for others.

“Banning transgender people from sport is disgraceful and hurtful,” Green said.

“It only means the rates of suicide and mental health issues will get even worse.

“I just knew it was going to be the most liberating feeling when I had that surgery and to be in the body I knew I had to be.

“That was a bright spark in my mind during these dark times facing demons, but I knew there was light at the end of the tunnel.

“I knew something that would make me really happy is that No. 1, I am going to live the rest of my life with my partner and my daughter. And that I am going to live the rest of my life as her dad.”