Australian rugby sevens captain Charlotte Caslick has quickly deleted a social media post showing her partying in a nightclub, just hours after her team suffered a heartbreaking last-minute defeat that saw them miss out on a medal.
Caslick sat with tears in his eyes, pondering what had gone wrong when the team lost the semifinal to Canada on Tuesday, only to have the United States score a last-minute goal to take the bronze medal. The players were sobbing uncontrollably.
However, on Wednesday she posted a photo of herself partying in a nightclub, surrounded by a group of men, with the caption “4th in the rankings, but always 1st out,” referring to the team’s fourth-place finish at the Olympics.
The post was only up for a short time, but the 29-year-old, who received the Order of Australia Medal in 2017 for services to sport, immediately deleted it.
Caslick previously posted photos of the defeat with the caption: ‘Heartbroken and really sad but always proud to represent Australia with these girls.’
The recent world champions and gold medalists at the Rio Olympics were in full swing on Tuesday through to the semi-finals and looked set for a thrilling showdown with New Zealand, the winners of the Tokyo title.
But on a day when temperatures rose to over 30 degrees, a moment of inattention threw a spanner in the works of their campaign.
Canada’s Charity Williams played the villain and caught the Australian defence off guard, sprinting clear and scoring a surprise try in what was one of the biggest upsets of the Games.
Australian rugby sevens captain Charlotte Caslick posted – and then deleted – this shocking Instagram post just hours after her teammates were left devastated in Paris
The soccer star is pictured seconds after her team suffered a last-minute loss to the US, missing out on a bronze medal
Australia led 12-0 but never recovered and a 21-12 defeat left the shell-shocked team battling the United States for bronze less than three hours later.
Australia again scored first, but failed to concede the ball. At 7-7, they had to hack away at the American goal line in the final 90 seconds before a try – Maddison Levi’s second and an Olympic record 14th place in the tournament – seemed to secure the consolation medal.
But Alex Sedrick pulled off a tackle out of nowhere and ran 85 metres, converting her own try in the process, sparking wild scenes and adding to the misery for Tim Walsh.
The United States defeated Australia in the group stage of Tokyo. Caslick also missed out on a medal there when they were surprised by Fiji in the quarterfinals.
But this match, after such a dominant tournament and a brilliant start, still hurt.
“I’m pretty devastated,” Caslick said.
Australian rugby stars were in tears after shocking loss to the Americans
Pictured: Australian stars are consoled by the crowd after going from one of the favourites for gold to Paris empty-handed.
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‘The beauty of sevens and sports; that’s why we play it.
‘It’s a game of moments and there are probably a few things we would have done differently, but we can’t take that back.
‘It’s a bummer of course. We want to go home with a medal, we train every day to have that feeling.’
The theme of their campaign was ‘no regrets’ and coach Tim Walsh insisted there were no regrets, describing it as ‘cruel’ to label fourth place as a failure.
“Triumph and disaster, they are both impostors and must be treated alike,” Walsh said, paraphrasing Rudyard Kipling’s poem “If.”
Walsh, whose contract is expiring and who is considering whether to continue in his role, admitted the half-time try against Canada had been a pivotal moment in their campaign.
“Winning and learning… a little winning and a little learning,” he mused.
‘I wish we had won more often, then it would have been a better end to the season.’
New Zealand then added insult to injury by coming back from 12-7 down to win the gold medal match 19-12 and defend their title.