U.S. women’s rugby team qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics as medal contender
The U.S. women’s rugby team qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics by clinching a top-four finish in this season’s World Series.
Since rugby was re-added to the Olympics in 2016, the U.S. men’s and women’s teams finished fifth, sixth, sixth and ninth at the Games.
The U.S. women are having their best season since 2018-19, finishing second or third in all five World Series stops so far and ranking behind only New Zealand and Australia, the winners of the first two Olympic women’s rugby sevens tournaments.
The U.S. also finished fourth at last September’s World Cup.
Three months after the Tokyo Games, Emilie Bydwell was announced as the new U.S. head coach, succeeding Olympic coach Chris Brown.
Soon after, Tokyo Olympic co-captain Abby Gustaitis was cut from the team.
Jaz Gray, who led the team in scoring last season and at the World Cup, missed the last three World Series stops after an injury.
The U.S. men are ranked ninth in this season’s World Series and will likely need to win either a North American Olympic qualifier this summer or a last-chance global qualifier in June 2024 to make it to Paris.
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U.S. women’s rugby team qualifies for 2024 Paris Olympics as medal contender originally appeared on NBCSports.com
