Pitch Perfect

July 06, 2026

By Anne MacLaurin, The Torch

UVic social sciences grad, Vikes star, Olympian and activist Pamphinette Buisa fought her way back from the heartbreak of injury to make a new start playing pro rugby in the United Kingdom.

Pamphinette Buisa recalls being told at age three that she was “too loud” or “too much.” As a child growing up in Gatineau, Quebec, she was energetic and exuberant. She played sports, but it wasn’t until a coach suggested rugby that she found her true joy and calling. “My basketball high-school coach encouraged me to try rugby,” recalls Buisa. “In rugby, you are allowed to hit people.”

Buisa played basketball, volleyball and rugby in high school until her parents explained the practicality of choosing one sport. “We were not wealthy, not like some other athletes, so I picked rugby and sold T-shirts to pay for my first out-of-province trip,” says Buisa, who joined Quebec’s provincial team.

Buisa is now an elite rugby player as well as an Olympian, speaker, storyteller and media pundit. “With rugby I can bring my whole self—all of me can exist in the same place—the aggressive, the loud, the soft; I don’t have to shrink myself,” says Buisa, speaking from Bristol, England, where she plays rugby professionally.

Read the full story in The Torch Magazine.