Do you believe in miracles?
Team USA’s women’s rugby sevens team pulled off a massive upset of Australia to win the bronze medal at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday, and did so in unbelievable fashion.
Trailing 12-7 in the final seconds, Team USA’s Alex “Spiff” Sedrick broke two tackles, absolutely trucking an Australian defender in the process, and proceeded to dart 94 yards for a buzzer-beating try.
Sedrick made the conversion kick after the score to cement Team USA’s 14-12 victory, beating the 2016 champion Aussies and winning USA Rugby its first-ever medal in sevens competition.
“We knew they were going to kick deep, being ahead in points, so we just trusted our framework and power zone, we just had to go for it,” Sedrick said.
Not that her teammates were expecting that kind of result.
History made! Congrats to @USARugby for getting bronze and shout out to Herriman local Spiff Sedrick for this amazing try to lock in the medal.#RugbySevens #Paris2024 pic.twitter.com/hMxZXyw950
— Utah Warriors Rugby (@utwarriorsrugby) July 30, 2024
“I was kind of like, ‘What is this? No way?’ It was crazy because I was like, ‘No, there’s no way this is happening,’ ” Team USA’s Ilona Maher told reporters in France of Sedrick’s winning try. “And then for her to have to make the kick as well, and she’s not our kicker.”
The victory left teammate Sammy Sullivan in tears, while burgeoning star Maher raised her arms in jubilation — as Bruce Springsteen’s “Born in the USA” played over the Stade de France speakers with more than 60,000 in attendance.
“It’s really huge, I don’t even know if it has fully soaked in beating the best team in the world for a medal,” coach Emilie Bydwell said. “To do it in such an excited fashion, with such belief, that has to be one of the best moments of the Olympics.”
Sedrick’s pivotal play was her “trying to channel my big girls. Ilona Maher. I’m just trying to be like her,” she said of her famously stiff-arm-dealing teammate.
Sedrick, 26, played collegiate rugby at Life University, a school in Georgia that specializes in training chiropractors, and won the MA Sorensen Award as the country’s best rugby player in 2020.
She has been a part of the USA rugby team since 2021, and was part of their gold medal-winning team at the Pan American Games in 2023.
Sedrick also scored a try in Team USA’s victory over Brazil earlier in the Olympics.
Tuesday marked the first time the United States had ever medaled in women’s rugby — a moment that was not lost on the American side.
“We’re really trying to raise up rugby in the U.S., especially in the women’s game, so hopefully this will inspire someone to pick up a rugby ball,” Sedrick said.
The women’s rugby team had become social media darlings even before their bronze medal performance.
Earlier this week, retired Eagles offensive lineman Jason Kelce arm-wrestled rugby player Nicole Heavirland, and was spotted having a lighthearted conversation with Maher.
“I wanted to be good at social media — and I do a lot of social media — but also be a very good rugby player,” Maher said. “It was important for me to show I am funny but I’m also the real deal and I also a very good rugby player. And so it was important for me to show that you can be anything. You can be beast, beauty, brains.”
Alex Sedrick really just truck sticked her way through and ran it all the way in for Team USA to win bronze 🥉 @USARugby pic.twitter.com/izpbvRT1n4
— The Sporting News (@sportingnews) July 30, 2024
In the gold medal match, Stacy Waaka dove into the corner to clinch back-to-back Olympic titles for New Zealand with a 19-12 win over Canada. New Zealand had defeated the U.S. in the semifinals, 24-12, earlier in the day.
