The Australian and the U.S. women's rugby sevens teams secured qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympics on Saturday by reaching the quarterfinals of the HSBC Hong Kong Sevens.
Both teams now have enough points to ensure they cannot fall out of the top four places in the HSBC World Rugby Sevens Series overall standings, which carry automatic Olympic qualification.
The women have one more tournament left this season — May 12-14 in Toulouse, France — after Hong Kong. The U.S. Olympic qualification is actually good news for the Canadian women, who now won't have to battle their North American rivals for the one Paris berth up for grabs at the regional Olympic qualifier in Langford, B.C., in August.
That produced a quarterfinal rematch Saturday with the Black Ferns — and another loss, this time 45-14. New Zealand led 28-0 at halftime en route to a seven-try performance.