As the dust from the 2024 Paris Olympic games settles, and the Paralympics are in full swing, here are some reflections on two weeks of emotion, endurance and female athletic achievement.

There were stories of greatness – like the first Pakistan gold medal won by Arshad Nadeem in Javelin, Eva Okaro becoming the first black woman to represent team GB in swimming, and Algeria’s Imane Khelif defeating online abuse and coming home with a gold medal.

“The USA rugby 7s team won the world’s support when they played, hugely in part to stargirl, Ilona Maher”

The main story, however, especially for me, lies with the USA’s Women’s Rugby Sevens team as they clinched a last minute try to earn them their first ever medal in this event. What was witnessed after the 7s tournament was much the same as what was seen during the women’s football world cup in Australia/ NZ, which saw the nation of Australia invest pride and fierce support into their Matilda’s. Also, at the 2022 Euros, which saw England’s victory inspire so many young people - especially girls - to pick up football, growing the grassroots game enormously and setting up the future for general investment in women’s sport.

USA Rugby have done just this. Without having even won gold, the USA Rugby 7s team won the world’s support when they played, hugely in part to stargirl, Ilona Maher. Maher has done for Women’s Rugby in 2024 what Leah Williamson did for football in 2022 – put women’s sport on the map. With her brains, her beauty, and her brawn, Maher has shown the world what female athletes act and look like. With an impressive 3.8 million followers on Instagram, she is now the most followed rugby player, male or female, on the app. With this audience, Maher has been able to showcase what being a women’s athlete entails – the inequality, the struggle, but more importantly the joy of being able to represent your country and do so in a way which inspires younger people to want to be more like her. Showing you can be a role model who is female, wears makeup – but is strong, toned and able to do incredible things with her brain and body on the field, and therefore challenge the societal perception of femininity.

“The women’s tournament taught us that… female sport challenges the stereotypes of femininity”

The search term ‘women’s rugby’ since 2003 has sat at a very low interest score of 3 throughout the past year. At the time of the Women’s 7s tournament, between the 28th July and the third of August, this trend spiked up to a max interest score of 100, meaning ‘women’s rugby’ was googled the most it ever has been. Similar trends can be seen with the search term ‘USA rugby’ and also ‘rugby clubs near me’, which was googled most in the countries of South Africa, the UK and Australia. Whether this spike was more concerned with future male or female rugby stars, the huge positive impact of the rugby 7s tournament at the Paris 2024 Olympics cannot be denied.

The impact that Paris 2024 has had on rugby is undeniable. The men’s tournament saw France win gold, with their star boy Antoine Dupont who transferred from 15s with the aim of Olympic victory. The women’s tournament taught us that female athletes come in many different shapes and sizes, and that female sport challenges the stereotypes of femininity in a way which validates and inspires young people to see their body and strength as a superpower. The Olympics didn’t just award medals - it awarded a platform to figures such as Ilona Maher, Madi Levi, Porsha Woodman-Wycliffe and Abi Burton who have actively taken to social media to showcase their athleticism. Thanks to their tireless advocacy, women’s sport has changed for the better. Girls now have heroes – heroes who are advocates for healthy living, for sport for all, for defying and breaking down gendered barriers. Heroes who are fierce warriors, heroes who win Olympic medals. The Paris 2024 Olympics was an Olympics of female success, of female equality, and one which set the groundwork for future women’s and non-binary sport to change forever.