Olympic sevens star Maddison Levi on rival code interest and Paris heartbreak

Amid AFLW and NRLW interest, prodigious athlete Maddison Levi has declared her commitment to Australia’s rugby sevens outfit, with her focus firmly fixed on Olympic redemption.

Maddison Levi of Team Australia breaks clear to score her team's third try during the Women's Rugby Sevens Quarter Final match. Picture: Michael Steele/Getty Images.

Amid AFLW and NRLW interest, prodigious athlete Maddison Levi has declared her commitment to Australia’s rugby sevens outfit, with her focus firmly fixed on Olympic redemption at the 2028 Los Angeles Games.

Levi became a household name in Australia in a matter of nights as she shattered the Olympic try-scoring record at the Rugby Sevens in Paris to finish with 14 from just six games.

Unfortunately it wasn’t enough to lift the heavily fancied Australian women’s outfit to a second Olympic gold medal after the side coughed up strong starts against Canada and the US to finish fourth.

Australia's Maddison Levi scores a try in Paris. Picture: CARL DE SOUZA / AFP.

“It’s mixed emotions that you come out an Olympic record-holder but in fourth place, I say I’d trade it all to have a gold medal,” Levi said.

“You’ve just got to ride the rollercoaster, we’ve been through the darkest times and now we move to what’s next, the season starts in two months now so it’s what we can do better and how we can keep challenging that threshold and challenging each other to get better.”

An athletic powerhouse who is tall, powerful and exceptionally quick, Levi had spent a season with Gold Coast Suns AFLW outfit before committing to sevens. Earlier this month, Gold Coast Suns head of women’s Fiona Sessarago said the club would love to have Maddison Levi and her sister Teagan – who was drafted to the Suns but diverted to rugby before she could play a game – back on the club’s list one day.

Maddison Levi during the Gold Coast Suns AFLW 2021 Official Team Photo Day. Picture: Matt Roberts/AFL Photos.

Despite the renewed interest from AFLW and NRLW circles, she confirmed that she was focused on Olympic redemption in Los Angeles.

“Don’t get me wrong when you play a sport like that you always have offers for AFLW and NRLW,” she said.

“I’m committed until 2026 to rugby and hopefully they’ll sign me until 2028.

“Rugby Sevens just (has) the beauty to travel with my sister and represent Australia each month, you can’t beat it.”

She said that she expected a similar squad to vy for gold in LA.

“Everyone that played in that last Olympics can recycle so they can feel the loss and use that to get better and come home with a gold medal in LA,” Levi said, adding that she hoped the majority of the squad could stay together over the coming four years.

“The beauty of this is we have such a young team … most of our teams under 23 so we have the beauty to go around another cycle.

“We have such a good culture and such a good sisterhood, so don’t count us out too long because we’ll all get around each other and keep getting better and better.”

Teagan Levi #5 and Maddison Levi #12 of Team Australia were distraught after missing an Olympic medal in Paris. Picture: Cameron Spencer/Getty Images.

While striving for future successes is set to take its rightful place in the foreground of Levi and her teammates’ eyes, the scars of Paris will take time to heal.

“You can obviously see the emotion after the game, it’s heartbreaking,” Levi said.

“We worked so hard and we came in so prepared, we came in seeded number two and we thought we were contesting that medal.

“The beauty of sevens is that it’s so fast and you can win and lose that medal in a matter of seconds.

“One game – which was probably our worst game – cost us and we were just too distraught after that semi-final to challenge America.”

Originally published as Olympic sevens star Maddison Levi on rival code interest and Paris heartbreak