Emily Henrich: From champion aerials skier to Leciester Tigers back line

Having spent her first sporting life doing twists and flips in mid-air, Emily Henrich is now coming full circle as a rugby player.

The American’s narrative arc will always be manna from heaven for the media.

After all, she is a former champion aerials skier who switched to rugby after being drafted in to play for a team coached by her Mum.

But Henrich, now a key piece in the Leicester Tigers backline, wants to be known in a different way - as an athlete who turned devastating injuries to her advantage.

“Skiing is part of the journey,” she explains, “but getting to this point has been a long time coming in rugby. I’m really grateful to be where I am now.”

In 2022, Henrich saw her name in lights at the Rugby World Cup in New Zealand, even adjusting her academic career on the basis that she’d be at the tournament.

Then, in the last domestic match before USA squad selection, she tore her ACL in the cruelest of setbacks, the kind that shatters dreams.

Henrich dug deep and leant on her support network at Dartmouth College to find a path through rehab.

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“I was lucky that I could step into a player-coach role with the team at Dartmouth and that really changed how I viewed the game,” she reveals.

“As a coach, you see the bigger picture and you have to figure out how to articulate things that you take for granted as players.

“Everyone’s brain works in a different way and having to get down to those minute details, I started seeing the game through someone else’s eyes.

“I had brilliant facilities and support at Dartmouth because of all of the funding they have and in the end, it really shaped who I am.

“I feel like I’m a better person and player for it, but I’m not saying I’d want it to happen again. Once is definitely enough!”

Having returned to the sevens field in 2023, Henrich had to do it all over again when she tore her lateral collateral ligament (LCL) on the same knee - a rare injury.

“The physio told me that the only time he’d seen it happen was to MMA fighters because of how they get kicked,” she laughed. “It is such a rare thing to happen.

“The only option was to just rehab really hard and hope it stayed strong enough. A lot of soul searching, having just gone through a whole year of it, but I didn’t want to have any regrets.”

Henrich vividly remembers her return in a USA jersey in a match against Wales in the lead-up to last year’s WXV.

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“I only got eight minutes but I was giddy for all of those eight minutes," she recalls.

Henrich hopes to use the PWR and her performances at Tigers as a springboard into this summer’s World Cup, finally banishing the demons of 2022.

“Playing here in England has been a goal of mine for a long time,” she said.

“I’ve seen American players come here and really build their rugby IQ, their skillset just blossomed and it was always something I was super interested in.”

First on the agenda for Henrich and team is an East Midlands derby with Loughborough Lightning.

“We all love a derby day!” she says. “I’m buzzing and I think the momentum we’re carrying is really exciting.

“Especially in the second half against Bristol, it seemed to fall into place in terms of how dynamic we want to be and the first half showed how physical we can be on defence.

“Tigers are going to roll into the weekend with a lot of energy and I think it will be a really good game.”