Tokyo, Japan -- It's 1:00 a.m. in the rural community of Loburn, North Canterbury, in the South Island of New Zealand and 30 Kiwis are crammed into two rooms of a farmhouse watching the opening women's soccer match of the Tokyo Olympics.
Over 5,000 miles away IU women's soccer student-athlete Gabi Rennie is living out a dream she has had from the time she was eight years old – to be an Olympian for the Football Ferns.
While the 50,000-seat venue is nearly empty, with no spectators or families allowed to attend, Rennie has a familiar face in the stands.
Liam Rennie, her older brother works for the New Zealand media company Newshub and is covering the Games.
Liam is surrounded by fellow New Zealand media members and being Rugby experts they don't understand why his sister, 20-years old and one of the youngest to make the squad, hasn't entered the game.
Finally, in the 89th minute Gabi is summoned to make her Olympic debut.
Two minutes later Gabi accepts a pass in the penalty area and heads the ball into the back of the net to score.
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To understand her Olympic journey you must go back to that farm in New Zealand, in a community of 2,000 people, where Gabi grew up with younger brother Lachlan and older brother Liam.
Amongst the horses, cattle and chickens, the kids played almost every sport imaginable and had a soccer goal in the backyard.
They were competitive at everything from board games to family trivia nights to the soccer pitch. The soccer goal in Gabi's backyard where she developed her skills playing with her brothers.
Every time Liam lost to Gabi, he would make his sister run laps around the house, telling her he was doing it for her own good. Wanting to impress her big brother she did as she was told.
"I definitely remember wanting to get better because my brothers played and I wanted to be better than them as the competitive sister," she said.
Liam could tell from a young age that there was something special about his sister.
"Whenever you watch her play she is the hungriest person on the field," he said. "She never stops. She is constantly fighting, and I don't think anyone out there wants to win more than her."
From a young age Gabi always thought about making an Olympic team, even before she knew what sport. The family grew up around horses and she excelled as an equestrian athlete often going from horse show to soccer pitch back to hose show. She earned Horse of the Year in the biggest New Zealand event.
At the age of eight years old Gabi got a poster of the New Zealand national football team, the Football Ferns, to hang in her room and proclaimed to her mother, "One day I'm going to be one of those." Six year old Gabi dribbles the soccer ball.
When she was 14 she focused solely on soccer and got good enough to be invited to the top club in New Zealand, but was denied because of her age. Instead of letting it bother her she played with the lower age group and being a right foot dominate player said all season she would play on her left foot. She was only going to allow herself to score with her left foot.
"She learned that even when bad things happen you can get something good out of it and that has stuck with her," her mother Rachel said. "She has made the best of any opportunity."
At 16, Gabi made Kiwi sporting history by being on the U17 team that finished third at the 2018 World Cup, the first New Zealand team, male or female to ever make the final stages of a major FIFA tournament.
After her first season with IU women's soccer in 2021, in which she helped the team to their best season since 2013, Gabi returned to New Zealand in hopes of achieving her dream and securing one of 18 coveted spots on the national team for the upcoming Olympics.
During a one-on-one meeting with head coach Tom Sermanni it was revealed she had made the team.
Her parents Gary and Rachel eagerly awaited the news as they knew the team was set to be announced. Suddenly they got a text message from Gabi that read RING ME.
Her mother called and joked that it was a bit rude to be yelling at her. Then on the other end Gabi explained.
"I have no money on my phone, but I want to let you know I made the team!"
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Liam had found out he was going to the Olympics to cover the Games before Gabi learned of her selection.
"My competitive side I was thinking I can't let him go to the Olympics before me," Gabi said. "It was motivation for me to make the team so we could both be over there together."
Before she left for Tokyo, Gabi and Liam went for a walk on the beach. A 30-minute walk became over two hours as they talked about looking forward and goals they had in their lives.
Liam knew he was going to be at the Olympics, but he didn't know he would be able to see Gabi or be allowed inside the soccer stadium. There was one press conference when the New Zealand team arrived, but Gabi wasn't a part of it.
Gabi said before the Olympics started she had visualized herself on the pitch in various situations, scoring goals or providing an assist.
Before the opening game, against Australia, Gabi said to herself, "If I'm going on, I'm going to score."
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When the ball traveled off Gabi's head and through the net everyone around Liam picked up on it, but he was still in disbelief.
"It wasn't until she was almost halfway back that I was like she just scored," he said. "Your brain goes 100 miles per hour and you are like wait, she just scored at an Olympics. It was so unbelievable the way it happened." Liam celebrates in the stands after Gabi's goal.
"It went so quickly, and I almost didn't believe it happened because I almost blanked out," Gabi said.
At the farmhouse in New Zealand there are two groups because not everyone could fit into the main lounge area with the TV. In a second room there is a projector hooked up to a computer, but the room with the projector was viewing the match with a two-minute delay. Farmhouse in New Zealand where friends and family watch Gabi at the Olympics.
When Gabi enters the game the 20 people in the lounge area start going crazy, but the people in the living room, including Gabi's dad are wondering what is going on.
Moments later the lounge area with Gabi's mother erupts again and Gabi's dad thinks New Zealand must have scored and maybe Gabi had something to do with it.
Soon everyone in both rooms are screaming, until Gabi's dad's phone starts buzzing and its Liam.
— Indiana Women's Soccer (@IndianaWSOC) July 21, 2021
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It wasn't hard for Gabi to find Liam in the stands after the match ended, with so few people there.
"It was so cool to look up after that game and see he was there and he had just witnessed what I had witnessed," she said. Going up and seeing him we were both speechless we didn't really know what to say to each other. It was pretty cool to be able to share that moment with him."
"In a moment like that you want to hug each other because that is the only way you can really share how you feel because you don't know what to say," Liam said.
Surrounded by Olympic officials enforcing COVID-19 restrictions Gabi and Liam gave each other an air hug.
Liam had been told off by the officials during the match for cheering as protocols stipulated you could only clap and not cheer during the match.
Liam didn't care. It was a once in a lifetime moment.
"I was making myself pretty well known to everybody," he said.
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Gabi's father Gary picks up the phone and it's Liam.
Next thing Liam says, "Gabi's coming over!"
Liam holds up the phone and as he is facetiming with his parents it allows them to see Gabi from 5,000 miles away. They are all yelling and screaming and telling her how much they love her. Gabi says hello to friends and family in New Zealand on facetime after scoring her goal.
For her small town and family to see her at the Olympics is mind blowing and then to interact with her over the phone 10 minutes after seeing her score a goal is amazing.
"I'm still in shock that she is there so I haven't really processed it all yet," her mother Rachel said. "To see someone, achieve their goal, no matter what it is, is so cool."
"The big thing for me now is how much it means for so many people," she added. "People that have grown up playing sport and at school throughout your life and people we haven't seen in many years have been ringing. I think everyone has so enjoyed it. It's really cool to see what pleasure other people are getting out of it. In these crazy times we are living in at the moment everyone wants something to celebrate, and this is such a lovely thing to celebrate and it makes everyone feel good."
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For Liam and Gabi they have a lot in common and have a close relationship. That relationship was forged in their backyard playing for the pure enjoyment of the game.
"My favorite thing is to see her so happy and loving football and loving this experience," Liam said. "It's a special thing for me and I'm glad I can be a part of it. The thing that makes me most proud is Gabi has the poster on her wall and now other little girls see what she does and take inspiration from that and that is the motivation to fuel their fire."
"I'm so lucky to have the support network that I do," Gabi said. "We are a very close family and are so supportive of each other's successes. I'm so lucky to have them and to have Liam here. He is someone who gets me and I can be myself around so it is so nice to have him here. I'm so proud of him and he has worked so hard to be here as well. He is someone who is very humble, and he has been one of my biggest inspirations growing up."
Gabi grew up idolizing the Football Ferns and now gets to call them teammates. She said they have been very welcoming to her as she lives out her dream. Gabi outside of the Olympic village in Tokyo.
After she scored the goal vs. Australia the messages on her phone came flooding in. The adrenaline of the match kept her up into the night and she has tried to respond to as many messages as possible over the last few days.
"It's been so nice to see the support from my local community and anyone I've had contact with in my life," she said. "It has been really nice to know I've made people proud and people are supporting me."
