USA Women Earn First-Ever Rugby 7s Olympic Medal!!!

Tuesday July 30, 2024

The winning "Try" by Alex Sedrick.

Olympic Trivia

• Tarzan competed in the Olympics! Johnny Weissmuller, the actor who played Tarzan in the original movie, won 5 Gold Medals during the 1924 and 1928 Summer Olympics. Four were for swimming, and 1 for Water Polo.

• A few Olympic sports that are no longer part of the Modern Olympics are Hot Air Ballooning, Dueling Pistols (sounds dangerous!), Tug-of-War, and Pigeon Shooting (sounds dangerous for the pigeons!)

• The five colors in the Olympic Rings were picked to ensure there was a color from every competing country's flag.

Olympic Cauldron Controversy

Did you see the 2024 Olympic Opening Ceremonies? The ceremony definitely prompted some strong responses, both for and against. The committee that organized the opening ceremonies had the goals of honoring the history of the Olympics and France, promoting diversity and inclusion, and reducing the carbon footprint.

Perhaps some of the controversy was generated by the fact that not everyone watching realized the banquet scene was a depiction of the Greek God Dionysus. Dionysus was the Greek God of festivities and wine, and was the father of Sequana, the goddess of the Seine River. It was Sequana who was riding the silver horse and carrying the torch.

And then there was the lighting of the cauldron with the Olympic torch. Lighting a hot air balloon was a nod to the history of France, since that is where manned Hot Air balloons were first flown in 1783. However, the cauldron was not lit by the Olympic flame, the cauldron shines via a combination of mist and beams of light, powered by renewable electricity. The decision to light the cauldron in this way supports the sustainability and environmental responsibility goals that were part of France's promise to reduce the carbon footprint of these Olympics. The controversy is around the fact that cauldron wasn't lit by the Olympic flame brought from Greece nor is the flame visible to the public. What do you think? In any event, the Olympic Cauldron was a fabulous sight to see!

Today's Event - They Advance the Ball by Throwing it Backward???

Rugby 7s - Women's placing and medals

Location: Stade de France in Saint-Denis (top right quadrant of the events map in a previous blog - July 28).

USA Team. #3 is Kayla Canett; #11 is Sarah Levy; and, both are from San Diego!

After watching nine Ruby 7s games in 95 degrees heat/humidity, we did learn more about the game. Based upon that information you may think we were there all day and night; but, actually, each game lasts 14 minutes (7 minutes each half). We arrived at 2:30pm and left at 6:30pm.

Rugby 7s is a fast moving and very physical game. Yes, it is true that in Rugby, the ball must be passed backward, but the ball can also be advanced by running or kicking. But, did you know that players can be lifted in the air to catch the ball? (We captured a great picture of that below, but we're not so sure of the strategy behind that action)

Like in American football, you score a touchdown by crossing the goal line. In Rugby 7s however, the player must touch the ball on the ground after crossing the goal line. A touchdown is called a "Try" and counts for 5 pts. The point after is called a Conversion and is 2 pts. Similar to American football, the player drop kicks the ball through the goal posts for the conversion. I guess we did learn a bit about Rugby 7s! Woohoo!

This is a scrum. We don't know enough to explain what that means!

Now back to the title of the blog today. We were so excited to be able to watch the US Women's Team play.....twice! The first game was a semi-final. Unfortunately, Team USA did not prevail against New Zealand. So, USA qualified for the Bronze medal game and New Zealand to the Gold.

For the Bronze medal game USA played Australia. Side note: Australian women have been playing rugby since 1921 and they were the 2016 Rio gold medalists - just sayin'. As we mentioned earlier, the game lasts 14 minutes - it happens so fast! At the end of the first half the score was 7-7. If you understand the game as much as we do at this point, you can figure out how they earned the points.

Second half play - 5:35 minutes into the 7 minute half, Australia scored a try, but missed the conversion. Score is now 12-7 with 1:30 minutes left in play. It looked like the game was over; but, Team USA blasted a chaotic comeback in the last play of the game. With 15 seconds left on the clock, Team USA's Alex Sedrick ran 85 meters (92.9 yds) to score a game-tying try as time expired. The try, along with the 2-point conversion, counted despite the clock running out because Rugby, like American football, does not end a game mid-play. With the subsequent conversion by Sedrick, the final score was 14-12, securing the 2024 squad's place in the Olympic history books.

Following the Olympic debut of the USA Women's rugby play in 2016, the US had never finished higher than 5th place before Tuesday afternoon.

With what is being defined as one of the most dramatic finishes at the Paris Olympics so far, Team USA made the Rugby 7s podium for the first time in history by upsetting Australia 14-12 winning the Bronze medal! Girl power all the way to the podium!

And finally here is a typical French Fan and a new friend! She is wearing a coq hat, a french fan favorite.

Au revoir!