The team of Alex Wilson, Anneli Maley, Lauren Mansfield and Marena Whittle made history in the heart of Paris at the city’s urban sports complex at La Concorde. Despite being on the short end of a 22-14 scoreline, just gracing the court was a great reward for the hard work and sacrifice it took to become Olympic-standard.

Nerves around the historic moment may have played a role for a slow start by Australia, with the mighty Canadian team, led by world no.1 Katherine Whittle, racing out to a 6-0 lead which became a 15-2 lead.

“It’s first game jitters but we’re here now. But it is such a long tournament,” Marena said.

“We had a tough four minutes but after that we really kicked it into gear and it’s just a shame we gave up so many points.

The Gangurrus, as the Aussie 3x3 team are known as, are no strangers to the Canadian team. They beat them twice in the Olympic Games qualifying tournament in Japan and it was there they rebounded from a tournament-opening loss to go undefeated to book their ticket to Paris.

Today the Aussies showed they do matchup with them by closing the match on a 12-7 run.

“I have nothing but confidence in my team. We’re more than capable and I’m really confident going into the rest of the tournament.”

The Gangurrus have six more games to come in their pool stage and are feeling the Olympic vibe.

“From the moment we stepped foot in Paris you could feel the energy. The crowd is a buzz, the city is a buzz, Paris is beautiful and they’ve really shown out,” she said.

“We don’t get out of the country too often so this is awesome.”

Next up for the Gangurrus is Germany, who defeated Tokyo 2020 3x3 gold medallists the USA in the match prior to the Australians. They play at 1:30am AEST on Thursday 1 August.

“We’ve got a very interesting history with Germany and we know them quite well,” Marena said.

“Anything can happen.”

Jeff Dickinson-Fox