Michaela Brake: 'I love putting pressure on myself'

Life couldn’t be much better for Michaela Brake.

Newly married, the new all-time leading try scorer in Sevens history, a new job in TV, and a new challenge on the horizon have made for an almost picture-perfect eight months for the Black Ferns Sevens star. That’s without even factoring in the second Olympic gold medal that kick-started it all in August.

The post-Paris whirlwind appears to have suited the winger, who seems to go through life “all gas, no brakes”, showing a willingness to accept opportunities and to throw herself into anything. 

In reality, she was incredibly shy when she started out in the team over a decade ago and has many introverted tendencies, often preferring to chill around the hotel on an off day or hang at home with her beloved dog Honey and husband Michael, an Olympic gold medalist with New Zealand’s rowing eight in Tokyo.

That quieter life offsets the hyper-competitive try-scoring machine we see cutting defences to ribbons on the HSBC SVNS series. Brake says the intense focus she’s put into her sport and a desire to be the best means she has to find ways to release the pressure valve.

“To be honest, I'm probably still learning how to do that. I am someone who loves competition and loves winning, and I love putting pressure on myself to be at a particular level. I have expectations of myself because I've been playing for such a long time now that I know what my best standard is and what I need to do in my role,” she says. 

“A high-performance athlete is expected to be at their best all the time so I think a lot of people see us have fun on the field and just playing a game that we love, but we're putting a lot of work and effort into making sure that we're getting one pass right or one kick-off right because sevens is a game where if you make mistakes, you're on the back foot instantly.”

Brake is a born winner. From a young age she knew she wanted to be an Olympian, to compete at the highest levels of sport. With three brothers and a typically straight-up, pragmatic attitude often seen in kiwi kids raised on a farm, she put that same steely focus we see on the field now into her junior sporting pursuits, notably athletics and football.

“I just loved the feeling of winning, and I wasn't ashamed of that. The feeling of crossing the line first, and your parents and your family and the teachers coming up to you, high-fiving you and saying, ‘well done, you won’. I think it's important that, you know, we always say to kids just go out and have fun, enjoy yourself, but it's also not a bad thing to want to win. It's not a bad thing at all.”

Ahead of Hong Kong Sevens, Brake sat atop the all-time try scoring list with 264, having overtaken former team-mate Portia Woodman-Wickliffe in Vancouver last month. Next in her sights is the all-time points tally of 1448 set by another former Black Ferns star, Tyla King, having surpassed second-place Ghislaine Landry (Canada). 

When you consider the milestones, the accolades (Brake is a two-time world player of the year), the trophies and the determination she’s shown since childhood, it’s easy to forget it took time for the 29-year-old to establish herself in the New Zealand side and become a regular starter. Brake says fighting for a place in the team meant she has at times battled with her own self-confidence.

But she cites the recent Perth SVNS, her first tournament since the Olympics, where it took her until the quarter-finals to score a try as an example of how her mindset has shifted. She says had that happened a few years ago it would have “got in her head”, creating doubt and probably a few tears.

“I would have cried, I would have said to [coach] Cory, ‘what's going on? Why am I doing my job wrong? Why am I not getting the ball?’, so yeah, I have learned over time that my role has evolved. 

“Cory has definitely made me open my mind to what else I need to put in my toolbox to make sure that our team performs well. Defensively, defending Maddi Levi is extremely important...I need to defend the other fast people to stop them scoring.”

Brake is fulsome in her praise of the player who has emerged as something of a rival, Australia’s try-scoring sensation Levi. The pair have almost become the embodiment of the combativeness between their respective teams, and the outcome of matches between them can often depend on which of the strikers does more with the ball their side gets them.

Again, Levi’s emergence is something that in years past may have bothered Brake. Not anymore.

“You have to give her so much respect, she’s an incredible athlete. She reminds me of when Portia came onto the scene, she just touches the ball and scores every time.” Brake enthuses. 

“But not only that, she's super, super fit, so you have to give her a lot of credit and I think it's important that, yeah, we are opponents, but you have to respect each other as athletes. It hasn't really got to me mentally because what she's doing is incredible so you can't take that away from her?"

Just when you think that sounds like a slight dampening of the competitive fire, Brake adds:

“I just focus on what I need to do for my team, because at the end of the day, we've got the Olympic gold medals, so she can do what she wants, but as long as we win, I'm happy”.

With only three tournaments to go, the exploits of Brake and Levi will undoubtedly go a long way to determining the league and world championship winners, before each go their separate ways. 

 

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