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| Date of birth | 14 December 1993 | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| Place of birth | Colombes | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Height | 1.8 m (5 ft 11 in) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Weight | 72 kg (159 lb) [1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||
| Rugby union career | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
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Medal record
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Anne-Cécile Ciofani (born 14 December 1993) is a French rugby player. [2] She was awarded World Rugby Women’s Sevens Player of the Year for 2021. [3] [4]
She discovered rugby at age 18 when she started studying Science and technology of physical and sports activities (STAPS), while she practiced the heptathlon:
With my speed skills, I knew I could do it. The opportunity to reach the very highest level pushed me as much as the practice.
Six months after her debut, however, she is summoned to the Elite Center of Marcoussis, but is only selected in the national team in 2018. [5]
In 2018, when she finished her first year as a professional player at AC Bobigny, she became vice-champion of the world of rugby 7 with the France team. She scored a test on the last action in the game against Australia, Olympic champion, which qualified France in the final and was elected best new player of the world tournament. [6]
She was a member of the French women's sevens team that competed at the 2024 Summer Olympics. [7] [8]
She came from a sporting family, both parents participated in Olympiads, her father Walter Ciofani in the hammer throw in Los Angeles in 1984, and her Cameroonian mother Jeanne Ngo Minyemeck in women's shot put and the women's discus throw at Seoul in 1988. Her sisters Juliette (Junior French Champion) and Audrey Ciofani (French Champion Hope and Vice Elite Champion) are athletes at the hammer throw and licensed at the Athletic Circle of Montreuil 93. [9]
In 2022, Ciofani married Geoffray Durbant, who is a professional footballer. [10]
Rugby union in France is a popular team sport. Rugby union was first introduced in the early 1870s by British residents, which makes the country one of the few early exponents of the sport. Elite French clubs participate in the professional domestic club league, the Top 14. Clubs also compete in the European knock-out competition, the European Rugby Champions Cup, which replaced the Heineken Cup from 2014 to 2015.
The France women's national rugby union team represents France in women's international rugby union. They played the first-ever women's rugby union test match against the Netherlands on 13 June 1982. They compete annually in the Women's Six Nations Championship and have placed third in seven of nine Rugby World Cup's.
Ciofani is a surname. Notable people with the surname include:
The World Rugby SVNS, known as the HSBC SVNS for sponsorship reasons, is a series of international rugby sevens tournaments for women's national teams run by World Rugby. The inaugural series was held in 2012–13 as the successor to the IRB Women's Sevens Challenge Cup held the previous season. The competition has been sponsored by banking group HSBC since 2015.
Sarah Hirini is a New Zealand women's rugby union player and two-time Olympic medalist. She plays for the New Zealand women's national rugby sevens team, and captained the Manawatu Sevens side that took out the 2013 National Women's Sevens title in Queenstown. She was named in the squad for the 2017 Women's Rugby World Cup.
Selica Winiata is a New Zealand Rugby union player and referee. She plays for the Black Ferns, the Black Ferns Sevens and provincially for the Manawatu Cyclones. She was part of the Black Ferns 2014 and Champion 2017 Rugby World Cup squads. She won a silver medal with the Black Ferns Sevens team at the inaugural women's 2009 Rugby World Cup Sevens tournament and a gold medal at the 2013 Rugby World Cup Sevens.
Cécile Canqueteau-Landi is a French gymnastics coach and former artistic gymnast. She competed at the 1996 Olympics and currently coaches at World Champions Centre in Spring, Texas. She coached from 2007 to 2017 at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy.
Gwendolyn Denise Berry is an American track and field athlete who specializes in the hammer throw. Her mark of 77.78 m on June 8, 2018, ranks her #7 on the all-time list. She also holds the world record in the weight throw with a mark of 25.60 m set in March 2017. She is a three-time national champion in the weight throw at the USA Indoor Track and Field Championships. She was the gold medalist in the hammer at the 2014 Pan American Sports Festival. She is also the 2019 Pan American Games Champion.
Theresa Matauaina Setefano is a New Zealand rugby union player. She was a member of the Black Ferns champion 2017 and 2021 Rugby World Cup squads. She has also represented New Zealand in rugby sevens; she won gold medals at the 2018 Rugby World Cup Sevens, 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo and at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. She played for the Blues Women in the 2022 Super Rugby Aupiki season.
Tyla King is a New Zealand international rugby union player, professional rugby league player and Olympian.
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Michaela Blyde is a New Zealand professional rugby sevens player and a double Olympic gold medalist. She was the first female player to win back-to-back World Rugby Sevens Player of the Year titles, in 2017 and 2018. Blyde holds the record for the most tries by a New Zealand women sevens player in a single match and also the record for most tries in a single fixture when she scored five tries against England in Langford in 2017. Blyde has won gold medals at the 2018 Sevens World Cup, 2018 Commonwealth Games, 2020 Tokyo Olympics, 2024 Paris Olympics and six Sevens titles. In December 2023 She was the second woman to score 200 tries in the HSBC international seven series.
Audrey Forlani is a French rugby union player who has made at least 47 appearances for the France women's national rugby union team. At club level, she plays for French women's Premier Division club Blagnac.
Caroline Drouin is a French rugby union player.
Camryn Rogers is a Canadian athlete specializing in the hammer throw. She is the reigning world champion, only the second Canadian woman to win gold at the World Athletics Championships. She is also the 2022 World silver medalist, 2022 Commonwealth Games champion, 2018 world U20 champion, and represented Canada at the 2020 Summer Olympics. She competed at the collegiate level as a member of the California Golden Bears track and field team, winning three NCAA outdoor titles.
Marcos Moneta is an Argentine rugby sevens player. He made his debut appearance at the Olympics representing Argentina at the 2020 Summer Olympics. Moneta received World Rugby's Men's Sevens Player of the Year award for 2021.
Reapi Ulunisau is a Fijian rugby player. She represents Fiji internationally in rugby sevens and fifteens. She won a bronze medal at the delayed 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, and a silver medal at the 2022 Commonwealth Games in Birmingham.
Sesenieli Donu is a Fijian rugby sevens player. She competed in the 2020 and 2024 Summer Olympics.
Chloé Pelle is a French international rugby union and rugby sevens player who has played for RC Chilly-Mazarin as a wing since 2020 and for the France women's national rugby union team since 2011.
The 2024 Women's Six Nations Championship, known as the Guinness Women's Six Nations for sponsorship purposes except in France where due to alcohol sponsorship prohibitions the tournament was unsponsored, was the 23rd series of the Women's Six Nations Championship, an annual women's rugby union competition between England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales. It began on 23 March and ended on 27 April 2024.
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