Record-breaking Olympics 2024 For Women’s Rugby Sevens

The New Zealand Women’s Sevens team secured back-to-back Olympic gold at Paris 2024, with the knockout games producing a number of upsets in a record-breaking tournament. Canada and the USA claimed a historic silver and bronze respectivelly while both Asian teams earned their best finishes at the Olympic Games, Japan in 9th and China in 6th. 

Beyond the ecstasy in victory and tears in defeat, this “coming out” event for Sevens as it has been billed has created legions of new fans and placed a memorable spotlight on the women’s sevens rugby game and its stars.

World Rugby Chairman Sir Bill Beaumont said, “We’ve also seen records broken across the board including the opening day of the women’s competition which saw over 66,000 fans descend on Stade de France. Visibility of the women’s game has never been higher and we’re confident we’ve laid a solid foundation for the game to continue to flourish. We have no doubt the women’s game is going to continue to soar.”

NZ winning back-to-back golds also means we have the first two-time gold-winning Women’s Sevens players, and there are 8 of them!

Image Credit: Sevens Rugby

Crowd Attendance – Women’s 7s Paris 2024

Stade De France broke the record for women’s rugby attendance on the opening day of the Women Sevens when 66,000 fans packed the stadium – this beat the previous record of 58,498 at Twickenham for England v France in 2023.

Tries Galore – Women’s Rugby Sevens Paris 2024

Maddison Levi broke the record for the number of tries at a single Olympic Games with her quarter-final hat trick to take her Paris 2024 try tally to 11 (she scored four in the first pool game too!). She ended up with 14 tries in total even though Australia fell just short of winning a medal.

She said “Record try scorer sounds pretty good but Olympic gold medallist would sound even better. As I always say I would not be getting these accolades if it wasn’t for the team beside me and they put me into the space to best utilise my skills.

I’m always striving to become better, working on little things that can get better every day. I also pride myself on those traits that help me retain the ball for the team, own that restart and make try-saving tackles. It’s often defence that wins games.”

Content is Queen

USA player Ilona Maher, already well-known for her social media content before the Olympics, surpassed Springbok Siya Kolisi & former All Black Sonny Bill-Wiliams (1.3 million followers) and French talisman Antoine Dupont (1 million followers) to have the largest social following in rugby on Instagram with 1.4 million followers. She also has 1.5 million TikTok followers and 100 million likes on that platform.

Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby – USA Rugby 7s player Ilona Maher – Paris 2024 bronze medalist

You just need to look at the trending content from the USA team interaction with the likes of Snoop Dogg, Flavor Flav, NFL player Jason and his partner Kylie Kelce to see the impact the Games had.

For more heartwarming content look up the reaction of Michaela Blyde – an iconic superstar in her own right – reaction to meeting her hero, sprinter Shelley-Amm Fraser-Pryce in the Olympic Village.

On the business end, American businesswoman Michele Kang, who is the owner of the Washington Spirit, Olympique Lyonnais Féminin and London City Lionesses women’s football clubs, announced she will invest $US 4 million into the USA women’s sevens rugby program after their first-ever Olympic medal in sevens.

Kang said, “2024 has been a banner year for women’s sports with record-breaking attendance and viewership, and women’s rugby is no exception. This Eagles team, led by players like Ilona Maher and co-captains Lauren Doyle and Naya Tapper, has captivated millions of new fans, bringing unprecedented attention to the sport.”

She added, “I am so happy to support these outstanding athletes to realise their dream in capturing the gold in Los Angeles in 2028. That work starts now. As corporate sponsors and broadcast networks increasingly see the value and enthusiasm for women’s sports, now is the moment to unlock the full potential of these incredible female athletes and inspire generations to come.”

Asian Women Sevens Rugby Teams Finish In Record-High Positions

Both Japan (9th) and China (6th) women finished in their highest respective positions at Paris 2024.

Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby – Japan Sakura 7s

Japan followed up a lacklustre opening day of two defeats to win three in a row and the side will be happy with the turnaround.

China, aside from two heavy defeats to eventual winners New Zealand, pushed silver-medalists Canada all the way in a narrow loss but were convincing winners over Fiji and GB before narrowly losing to France in the 5-6th final.  They were the only non-SVNS core team to play at Paris 2024.

Photo credit: Mike Lee – KLC fotos for World Rugby – China Women

Asian Connections – Paris 2024 Rugby Sevens (Women)

Some more on the Asian connections in the Men’s Rugby Sevens competition to Asia:

• Canada’s Women’s Sevens Assistant Coach Iain Monaghan was the Hong Kong China Women’s 7s Head Coach before joining Canada in 2023.
• Canada’s Florence Symonds played for Hong Kong China and even took part in the Tokyo 2020 Repechage with them. She previously won gold with HKCR on the U20 Asia Rugby Sevens Series and silver with the senior team on the ARSS 1st leg. She is now an Olympic silver medalist!

Photo by CARL DE SOUZA/AFP via Getty Images – Canada’s Florence Symonds (left)

• Both USA’s Ilona Maher and Australia’s Charlotte Caslick are Childfund Rugby ambassadors and have visited Laos to see the development program in action.
• Players such as USA’s Alena Olson, and NZ’s Tyla King have spoken proudly of their Asian heritage and inspiring other players.

Retirees From Women’s Sevens Rugby

Sadly, a number of players have already confirmed they will be retiring from Rugby Sevens after the Paris 2024 Games – and over the coming weeks & before the next World Rugby SVNS Series gets underway, others might also be hanging up their boots.

• Portia Woodman-Wickliffe (NZ)
• Tyla King (NZ)
• Sharni Smale (Australia)
• Dom Du Toi (Australia)
• Naya Tapper (USA)
• Chloe Pelle (France)

Asian Match Officials – Paris 2024 Rugby Sevens

Both Ano Kuwai (Japan) and Craig Chan (Hong Kong China Rugby) were selected to officiate the Women’s 7s in Paris 2024. Craig was in charge of the bronze match between the USA and Australia.

Rugby Sevens – Olympic Games Paris 2024

• French Men Claim Maiden Olympic Gold At Rugby Sevens Paris 2024.
• Men’s Rugby Sevens Paris 2024 – By The Numbers.
• Olympic Games Paris 2024 Rugby Sevens Schedule & Team News.
• Rugby Sevens Experts Make Their Medal Predictions For Paris 2024 Olympics.