Maddison Levi makes history as Australia qualify for Olympic semi-finals

Maddison Levi has broken yet another rugby sevens record after scoring a flurry of tries on Monday at the Paris Olympic Games to help Australia book their place in the semi-finals.

Levi, 22, scored four tries on the second day of the women’s tournament at Stade de France which extended the Queenslander’s tally to 11 – the most in a single event by any woman in Olympic Games history.

The Australian made history on the SVNS Series in 2022/23 by scoring the most tries by a woman in a single season. Levi was once again prolific on the scoreboard during her team’s run to the overall Series title in 2023/24.

But there’s always something mesmerizing about the way Levi is able to dominate. Playing at the Olympic Games, the Gold Coaster stole the show once again in two decisive wins over Ireland in front of thousands at the Saint-Denis venue.

Australia beat the fighting Irish 19-14 in their final pool match before taking on the women in green for a second time in a quarter-final. It was never really close as Australia piled on a 26-nil lead by the half on their road to an emphatic 40-7 victory.

“It felt awesome out there. We had a good warm-up and I think we set the platform with our defence which is a key area for us,” captain Charlotte Caslick said in a statement.

“We know we can win games when we have Maddi Levi and Faith Nathan out wide but our defence is important. Everyone is here to win a gold medal.

“To have Canada, they’re a strong team and we’ve had some good battles against them this year.

“They’ve got incredible athletes so I’d love to see someone like Maddi go toe-to-toe with some of their fast girls.”

Less than a minute into that knockout clash, Maddison Levi linked up with younger sister Teagan to score the opener. The superstar sisters ran a switch play switch saw ‘Maddi’ dot the ball down only 46 seconds into the contest.

That was a statement from the Aussies.

Ireland looked the more likely to score next as they controlled possession and slowly made their way up the park for at least a minute, but solid defensive efforts from Isabella Nasser and Caslick changed that. Australia turned over the ball and made the most of it.

From a quick tap, Teagan ran about 50 metres before finding Maddison on the right edge. The try-scoring phenomenon had a double and completed a hat-trick soon after – Maddi’s third hat-trick in four matches at the Paris Games.

Faith Nathan scored one to complete a dominant first half from the Aussies. Nasser and Bienne Terita helped pile on some more points after the break as one of the gold medal favourites booked their place in the final four.

Australia will take on Canada at 12:00 am AEST on Wednesday morning for a spot in the gold medal match. Canada boasts plenty of talent which includes the likes of Charity Williams and Olivia Apps, so they’ll be tough to beat.

The Canadians famously upset the Aussies in the third-place playoff at Vancouver’s BC Place Stadium earlier this year. Canada also beat New Zealand at the Grand Final event in Madrid and are coming off a strong quarter-final win over hosts France.

New Zealand take on the USA in the other women’s semi-final.