Canada’s Women’s Sevens Rugby Team Takes Silver at Olympics

Canada’s Women’s Sevens Rugby Team Takes Silver at Olympics
Canada's women's rugby sevens team stands on the podium after winning silver in competition at the Summer Olympics in Paris on July 29, 2024. The Canadian Press/Adrian Wyld
Chandra Philip
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Canada’s women’s rugby sevens team has earned a silver medal at the Paris Olympics after a July 30 match with New Zealand, marking Canada’s best-ever Olympics result in the event.

“Oh Canada is proud,” Rugby Canada said in a July 30 post on the X platform.

“Canada’s Women’s Sevens Team’s amazing performance over the last three days in Paris has led to our FIRST EVER silver medal and best ever performance at the Olympics,” the post said.

New Zealand, which won the game, took gold in 2020 and silver in 2016, the first year the sport was included in the Olympics.

Canada made it to the gold-medal final after beating out France on Day 3 and Australia on Day 4 of the Olympics, while New Zealand beat the United States 24–12 to take on Canada in the finals.

New Zealand got an early jump during the game, scoring within the first two minutes.

Canada fought back, bringing the score to a 7–7 tie, which soon became a 12–7 lead for Canada going into halftime.

However, New Zealand came back strong in the second half, bringing the score to 14–12.

The Canadian team was not able to come back and New Zealand ended the game in the winning spot with 19–12, with the United States taking bronze.

“We started the year off at ninth and now we’re ending the Olympics with a silver medal,” player Chloe Daniels told Olympics Canada. Daniels scored the first try of the final.

“I think that goes to show all of our hard work throughout this entire year.”

She is already looking ahead, noting the team is still young.

“So hopefully 2028 will come with some more experience going to the Games and yeah, it’s super exciting.”

Canada’s previous best result was bronze at the 2016 Olympics in Rio. The team came in ninth in Tokyo 2020.