USA: Fact file

Form guide

With four top-four finishes, the USA women's sevens team out-performed their male counterparts in 2024 to finish a creditable fourth in the regular SVNS season, behind New Zealand, Australia and France. In the season-ending Grand Final in Madrid they won their last match 31-0 against Fiji to finish fifth.

The men's team had one top-four finish in Vancouver but struggled for consistency and finished the regular season in ninth place. They therefore travelled to Madrid needing to fight to retain their core team status for 2025, a feat they achieved with a 40-19 defeat of Samoa. 

Star dust

Sevens commentator and reporter Rob Vickerman says: "Not only does Ilona Maher attract the most views and engagements on social media, the powerhouse forward also has the most impact for her team, scoring tries for fun in a leadership role she is clearly relishing on and off the pitch.

"For the men's team, 38-year-old Perry Baker is still improving like a fine wine as he approaches his third Olympics before a deserved retirement. The only two-time winner of the World Rugby Men's Sevens Player of the Year award, his is an unrivalled career in the American rugby context."

Road to Paris 2024

While the women's team booked their place in Paris by finishing in the top four of the World Rugby Sevens Series 2023, not including France, the men had to qualify through the regional route and did so by beating Canada 24-14 to win the 2023 Rugby Americas North (RAN) Sevens last August. 

Previous Olympics

USA's men's and women's teams competed at both the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Games. The women's team has twice lost in the quarter-finals, while the men lost in the Tokyo quarter-finals, having not proceeded from the pool stage in Rio.