Paris 2024 Olympics - Rugby Sevens - Men's Gold Medal Match - France vs Fiji - Stade de France, Saint-Denis, France - July 27, 2024. Spectators in the crowd celebrate as France wins the gold medal match REUTERS/Dylan Martinez
PARIS (Reuters) - Rugby sevens has beens one of the undoubted highlights of the Paris Olympics, delivering huge crowds, thrilling matches, big shocks and the anointing of a true sporting superstar in Antoine Dupont, as well as producing France's first gold of their Games.
Starting two days ahead of the opening ceremony, sevens had the opportunity to grab the early attention but even its biggest supporters were taken aback by the atmosphere generated by near-capacity 67,000 crowds for every session at the Stade de France.
"It's been incredible, 550,000 spectators in six days," said World Rugby CEO Alan Gilpin. "We always said this was our chance to have a coming of age rugby sevens and it' been amazing, everything we thought it could be."
Veterans of Six Nations grand slams, the Rugby World Cup and Super 14 finals said the noise that greeted the French men's victory over Argentina in the quarter-finals surpassed them all.
Organisers then got the final they had dreamed of when the hosts battled through to take on double-defending champions Fiji, but there was still so much more to come.
Fiji had won all 17 of their previous Olympic matches and the stadium was wire-tight with tension as the match reached halftime level at 7-7.
Dupont, the superstar of France's 15-man game who had taken a sevens sabbatical, then came off the bench to set up a try with his first touch and score two more as the hosts sent the fans into a frenzy by winning 28-7 to claim their first men's sevens medal and the country's opening gold of the Games.
France's women were unable to match them as they lost in the quarter-finals but the second half of the tournament continued to deliver incredible storylines.
LAST-PLAY SCORE
Canada stunned co-favourites Australia with a last-play score to reach the final for the first time and led mighty New Zealand at halftime before the defending champions drew on all their experience to drag themselves to a 19-12 victory.
The United States, having reached the semi-finals for the first time, delivered another huge upset by beating Australia with a thrilling length-of-field last-play try to take bronze.
American Ilona Maher, already the whole sport of rugby's biggest social media presence, added another 400,000 followers on the back of her team's heroics - more music to the ears of World Rugby after their decision to award the 2031 men's and 2033 women's World Cups to the United States.
Even more extraordinary was the fact that Australia's peerless back Maddison Levi, who scored an Olympic record 14 tries in a series of performances that combined speed, power and grace, could walk away empty-handed.
Apart from some routine jeering of Argentina by the home fans, the tournament was played in an amazing spirit.
There was barely a raised eyebrow, let alone voice, towards referees, even in the face of the many yellow cards for dangerous tackles, and players were gracious in defeat and victory.
The policy of broadcasting referee-to-TMO discussions live to the crowd was an example to all sports, with again barely a murmur of discontent from the stands even when decisions went against the hosts.
"Being part of sport’s biggest platform is a fantastic position for us," said Gilpin.
"We had a humble beginning in Rio, a really challenging Tokyo and we've worked really hard on the SVNS Series over the last year to get to the point where the product is brilliant."
(Reporting by Mitch Phillips; Editing by Ken Ferris)
