Having now made the team for international tournaments in Dubai, then Cape Town, South Africa, the 20-year-old’s finally living the dream.
Speaking to Mountain Scene on Monday before flying out to Dubai, Olive calls her call-up to the Paris Olympics gold medal-winning team "absolutely unreal".
"I’m so excited, it’s just starting to kick in now."
As to whether she knew she’d be selected, "I had absolutely no idea, but because of a few injuries they got me called in".
Ironically, Olive’s own injury lay-offs this year had made Black Ferns selection seem a bit distant.
The former Arrowtown School and Wakatipu High student, who shifted to Mount Maunganui in 2022, first made the Black Ferns Sevens development side, for a Brisbane tournament, last December.
She was contracted to the Chiefs Manawa 15s squad, but didn’t play in the Super Rugby Aupiki comp due to injury.
Olive did, however, play for an invitational team in the Hong Kong 10s, in April, and, after landing a Ferns development contract, played in two international tournaments in France in June. After that she didn’t play for five months, suffering initially a torn shoulder, and then a sprained collarbone joint.
"The physio thought it would be way less time, but I had the right people around me for support who got me through it.
"I think just the past three years, I’ve just put my head down and worked the hardest I can.
"Especially the last eight weeks was the hardest I’ve ever worked or pushed my body to get myself better."
Olive then impressed the selectors playing for her Matakesi invitational side in the Sarah Hirini Cup.
Black Ferns Sevens coach Cory Sweeney says "we saw she has amazing work rate, energy and a real relentlessness about her game; she’s an exciting talent".
Olive, who plays prop and hooker in sevens but wing in 15s rugby, says she prides herself most on her defence.
As to who she thanks, she singles out her Arrowtown parents, especially, her sisters, her Mount Maunganui family and all the coaches she’s had.
Ironically, when at 16 she was chosen as the youngest player for a sevens tournament in the Mount, she was considered too young to stay in a hotel, so she was instead billeted by Sweeney, who was the Blacks Ferns Sevens co-coach even then.
Olive says her later move to the Mount was "the best choice I’ve ever made".
"I’ll still hold [Otago] strong to my heart, but there’s just not the same pathway down south as there is up north with sevens."
As to whether nerves will kick in when she debuts for the Ferns, she says she’s "more excited — a little bit nervous, but the girls have got my back".
