Jazz Joyce doesn't believe taking up a full-time contract with the Welsh Rugby Union will jeopardise her dream of winning a sevens medal with Team GB in Paris next year.
The two-time Olympian, below, is hoping it will be third time lucky in 2024 after two fourth place finishes in Rio and Tokyo.
Both Joyce and Kayleigh Powell have returned to the Wales 15-a-side set-up for the WXV Tier 1 tournament in New Zealand in October and then the 2024 Six Nations as part of a hybrid partnership with Team GB. They will join seven new full-time athletes added to the Welsh squad to give head coach Ioan Cunningham 32 fully professional players to work with.
“The Scots have done the same in going to this hybrid model and the Team GB coaches have been fantastic with us. All they want is for us to get as much exposure as possible to playing high-level rugby leading into the Olympic Games,” said Joyce.
“There is a five or six month gap between the last World Sevens Series game and the first of the next cycle which could have meant we didn't play any rugby for five or six months.
“My dream and my goal since going to Rio is to medal. Fourth place is one of the worst places to finish – nobody remembers who came just outside the medals.
“I have full confidence in the programme, the set-up and all the girls involved that we can go out there and do that. After my career I want to be able to say I've won an Olympic medal.” Courtney Keight, Hannah Bluck, Carys Williams-Morris, Abbey Constable, Kate Williams, Bryonie King and Megan Davies are the new players given Wales contracts.
