While Aussie men’s pairs of Izac Carracher and Mark Nicholaidis, Thomas Hodges and Zachery Schubert made their Olympic debut.

Competition commenced with challenging pool matches for both of the men’s pairs. 

Izac and Mark faced teams from Qatar and Italy as well as the number one ranked pair from Sweden. While both men were strong throughout their matches, and showed incredible resilience, Izac and Nick fell just short in the pool and were unable to progress to the round of 16. 

It was a similar story for the other men’s pair of Thomas and Zachery. They played teams from Germany, Poland and host nation France. The pair had a difficult run through the pool stage, however, managed a nail-biting win over Lyneel (FRA) and Bassereau (FRA) to get through to the Lucky Loser round. Unfortunately they had a difficult match against Americans Miles Evans and Chase Budinger, losing 2-0 and were eliminated from the competition. 

For Aussie women and reigning Tokyo 2020 silver medalists Taliqua and Mariafe, they came into competition as the hot favourite as the only returning medalists from the previous Games. They faced arguably the toughest pool group, matching up against USA, China and Canada. Mariafe and Taliqua fell just short in their pool match against the Americans to progress to the round of 16. 

Mariafe and Taliqua conquered teams from Brazil and Switzerland through the round of 16 and quarterfinals, before falling to the second Brazilian team of Ana Patricia Silva Ramos and Eduarda Santos Lisboa in three sets, 2-1 (22-20, 21-15, 15-12). The result saw the pair headed to the bronze medal match against the second Suisse pair, Tanja Huberli and Nina Brunner.   

Mariafe and Taliqua couldn’t match the intensity of the Suisse and lost in straight sets 2-0 (21-17, 21-15). Despite the result, both were incredibly grateful for the opportunity to play in Paris under the Eiffel Tower.