Powerhouses Australia and New Zealand dominated their opening pool matches as sevens at the Stade de France on Sunday made history as the best ever attended women's rugby event.
A sell-out crowd of 69,000 packed into the stadium north of Paris, still abuzz from the euphoria of having witnessed Antoine Dupont leading France past Fiji to the host country's first gold of the Paris Games in the men's tournament on Saturday.
In the build-up, Maddison Levi believed the atmosphere would bring the best out of the side and it delivered just that.
The 2023-24 leading try scorer scored four as the 2016 Olympic champions outclassed South Africa 34-5 in Pool B.
She then scored three to take down Great Britain 36-5.
"It was good to get a first win under our belts and move on to the rest of the tournament. That was our aim today," said Levi, whose sister Teagan is also in the Australian squad.
Levi called the sell-out stadium "really special".
"It's kind of surreal walking out into a stadium in front of so many people. They seem to know the sport and are really respectful when needed," she said.
"It's awesome to see that not only men's, but women's rugby sevens gets crowds like this."
Not to be outdone, Michaela Blyde scored four tries in New Zealand's 43-5 win over China.
The two scored their four tries in similar fashion, getting the hat-trick in the first half before immediately exiting the field after their fourth.
For the Americans, it was Rugby and social megastar Ilona Maher who delivered the damage.
Maher bumped off a Japanese defender to score a brutal solo try as the United States overran Japan 36-7 despite Sakura Mizutani handing the Japanese a surprise early lead.
She produced a similar effort as the USA took down Brazil 24-5.
The Sevens star is one of the faces of the USA Olympic team as a result of her major social following promoting body positivity and women's health to her followers on TikTok (1.4 million) and Instagram (1.2 million).
"It is really important to have a profile, and a profile for our sport. It's about building the brand," said Maher.
"We are female rugby players -- we're not getting million dollar contracts, we're not getting paid the money that we should be.Me and my friends are keen on getting the sport out there and getting us noticed. It's important in the US where so much attention is on other sports and I think it's just about showing the personality that the women have. The game is very strong, not just for men, but for women, too.
"It's an exciting game. It's a little bit different but it's when people realise how hard it is and how much fun they get excited by it."
