YORKTON - When Canada's Women's Sevens Team hits the pitch July 28 at the Summer Olympics in Paris against Fiji, Waldheim’s Carissa Norsten will be wearing the familiar red and white.
Women's rugby sevens will take place July 28 to July 30 (Day 2 to 4) at the Stade de France. Canada has drawn in Pool A, alongside New Zealand, Fiji and People's Republic of China.
“It’s pretty incredible. It really hasn’t hit me yet,” Norsten told Yorkton This Week in an interview from Paris where the team has been in practice sessions ahead of the Games.
Canada's women's rugby sevens team qualified for Paris 2024 on home soil in Langford, BC last August at the 2023 Rugby Americas North Sevens regional qualification event, going undefeated and winning 53-0 over Mexico in the final.
Norsten said the 7s season was something of “an up and down” one for Team Canada.
The team opened the 2024 HSBC SVNS season in December 2023 with a fourth place performance in Dubai, beating Ireland in the quarterfinals and playing a tight match against New Zealand in the semifinals. They went on to play in the third place play-off at three more SVNS stops throughout the season, headlined by their bronze medal in front of a home crowd in Vancouver. They finished fourth in Los Angeles and ended the season ranked fourth in the world after a strong performance at the 2024 HSBC SVNS Grand Final in Madrid that saw Canada beat New Zealand in pool play for the first time since 2016, detailed www.rugby.ca
But, Norsten quickly replied “absolutely” when asked it the team was on a high headed into play in Paris.
“We’ve beat every team’s that here this year,” she said, adding if Team Canada plays at its best, they can be on the podium at the end of things.
A big step toward that podium finish would be a quick start in a sport where a game is only 14-minutes long.
“You really do (need a quick start). There ‘s not a lot of time to catch up,” said Norsten.
A few wins early could make the seeding for medal play better too, so wins over perennial powerhouses Australia and New Zealand would be important.
Norsten is one of only a handful of athletes across a number of sports from Saskatchewan at the Games, a fact not lost on her.
“To be from such a small province shows anybody can do it,” she said.
On a personal level Norsten goes into the Olympics coming off a huge season in which she was named the 2024 HSBC SVNS Women's Rookie of the Year.
Norsten was announced as the winner of the award at the conclusion of the HSBC SVNS Grand Final in Madrid.
“She made a name for herself in Canada's first match of the 2024 series in Dubai, scoring in golden point extra time to secure a win for Canada over the United States. She went on to score eight tries this season, playing in seven of the eight tournaments,” stated the rugny.ca site
Prior to making her debut on the HSBC SVNS series, Norsten earned her first senior team selection when she was named to Canada's 2023 Pan American Games silver medal women's sevens squad.
Now it’s just a case of performing as the Canadian team knows it can.
“We’ve trained every single day. We know all the systems,” said Norsten.
At the same time, as her sister Christina – also a very good 7s player – told her, there neds to be time to soak in the atmosphere and have fun in Paris.
The atmosphere will start with walking in with the rest of Canada’s athletes at the opening ceremonies.
“I’m sure it will be pretty surreal to be with the rest of Team Canada,” said Norsten.
Canada won its first Olympic rugby medal at Rio 2016 when the women's rugby sevens team captured bronze in the discipline's inaugural Olympic tournament. At Tokyo 2020, Canada's women's rugby sevens team did not advance from the group stage.
