Issue
07
Photography
Simon Eeles
Words
Lauren Cochrane
Published
Reading Time
7 Min Read
If you spend any time with Maddison Levi - or Maddi to her friends - don’t be surprised if you come away with a new habit of touching your forehead. “One of the girls in our team started this superstition - [if an injury was mentioned], I had to touch my head, like it was touching wood. We’d all be sitting in a team meeting, and there'd be eight of us with this same silly, stupid gesture,” she laughs, talking over a Zoom call from Sydney.
If skeptics would dismiss this as nonsense, they’d have to agree that whatever Levi is doing, she should keep doing it. The 23-year-old Australian has been playing Rugby Sevens seriously since 2021, and during that time, she has won a gold Commonwealth Games medal and a bronze medal at the 2024 Olympics. She was named World Rugby Seven’s Player of the Year for 2024, and became the fastest Australian woman ever to score 200 tries. After a try-stealing move caused her to go viral - and named a ‘cheat code’ for her team - in April, Levi is firmly in ‘generational talent’ territory.
Next up may be a different game entirely - transitioning from Sevens, where there are seven players per side, to 15, the team size of traditional Rugby Union. “You're still playing rugby, you're still catching a footy, still tackling people, you're still running down the sideline,” she explains. “[The decision is] a little bit challenging, especially when they're in such a peak year, trying to bring home a World Cup.”
This kind of switch up is not something completely new to Levi. She has, arguably, been looking at her options since she was a child. Growing up with her parents and sister Teagan, who also plays Sevens for Australia, Levi wasn’t even interested in sport initially - she preferred dance. “I had dreams to travel the world dancing, and then when I was 16, I first decided to try out sport at school,” she says.
The path to rugby began, right? Wrong. Levi was still keeping her options open, initially playing AFL (Aussie Rules football) and Rugby Sevens at the same time. When the time came to choose between the sports, she was sensible. “I had a contract for AFL and rugby couldn't give me a contract for a year, due to the Olympics,” she says now. “So I committed to The Suns [the team she was playing for] and they let me continue to train with rugby and do games when I was out of season.”
In 2021, Levi finally switched to Rugby Sevens in earnest, playing in the Tokyo Olympics and quickly establishing herself as an indispensable member of the team. She says that her background had a bearing on the impact she’s made, from her core strength developed through dance to the competitiveness of the AFL. “The athlete I am today is because of everything I've done growing up,” she says. “Whenever I speak and give advice to parents or to young kids playing sports, it's to play as much as you can and do as much as you can.”
Levi credits her parents and her sister with her rise. Both parents were sporty: her Mum played netball, her Dad a rugby player, and they dedicated themselves to their daughters’ ambitions after relocating to the Gold Coast from Sydney. “We moved up there [the Gold Coast] with little money. We were sharing a one bedroom apartment for four of us trying to live in,” she remembers.
Levi’s mother set up a cleaning business so she had time to ferry the girls around to their various training sessions. The dedication paid off. In her native Australia, Levi is becoming a name to know. “The other week I had a few girls actually crying and shaking when they met me,” she says, eyes widening in disbelief. “It made me tear up, because I was once that little girl. I remember meeting the likes of Charlotte Caslick, who I now get to play with, and Ellia Green and Alicia Quirk, and asking about anything that could help my game.”
She is candid about things not always going her way. “I was never picked [for teams],” she says. “My sister would make the teams in front of me. I built a lot of resilience [from that] that I use now.” It’s also her biggest message to aspiring young women. “Hearing stories of what I've been through, people are like ‘ok, I'm not getting picked, but I can still have these dreams of making this team, because I know there's someone that's been in my position that's now in this team.’”
Levi’s rapid rise over the last few years has coincided with that of women’s sport in general and, in Australia, women’s rugby. “I have seen the Sevens just skyrocket,” she says. "When we played in Perth, it was the first time that the women's game had ever been the final match. Normally it's a men's game. There was talk about whether or not the stadium would still be full but it sounded like it was roaring more for the women's game….I’ve had lots of people tell me that the women's game is actually more entertaining than the men. It was awesome to hear that.”
Like a lot of 22-year-olds, Levi is interested in fashion and style. Her blonde hair and tan epitomise the Aussie girl archetype and her Instagram regularly features “life lately” posts including bikini shots and tasty sandwiches. A necklace spelling out Dior has a starring role.
“My team actually bought it for my 21st,” she smiles. “I don't take it off for training. I am probably the only female that trains in D
ior.” She says it's important not to dismiss this part of herself. “[I am] trying to break away from that stereotypical idea of what a female should look like playing rugby,” she says. “I believe in look good, play good.”
Her and her team mates often wear hair ribbons while playing, a detail picked up by fans in Hong Kong recently. If fashion is an interest, Levi’s day to day is still dominated by training.
“We'll start at 7.30am with prep, go on the field around 9 to 10.30, refuel, recover, and then we'll gym from 12 to 1, skills from 1 to 1.30-1.45 and then team meeting,” she says.
When she does have a day off, it can be relaxing by the ocean reading a book or “I hibernate and don't do anything…I just bedrot, because I use all my energy on the pitch.”
Currently in a relationship with Ironman athlete Will Savage, Levi also spends time with him on the Gold Coast. That’s when her schedule allows, however.
Speaking in early April, Levi has just returned from Singapore and has a tournament in LA next up. Along with smashing more records, and mulling the transition from Sevens to Fifteens, she has the Olympics schedule to think about, particularly 2032, which will be in Brisbane, when Levi will be 30.
The player would be the first to admit that even as a sportsperson, that’s a lot of forward planning - but there’s life stuff like having children to consider, between those trophies. “I think the hardest thing [about starting a family] is it's very individualised,” she says. “I am 22, talking about pregnancy and having a family, which is probably six years down the track, but it's something that I have to prepare myself for because it affects my career.”
For now, of course, she is focused on more of those career highs. “I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing, keep challenging and breaking the norm,” she says. “I’m hoping for an Olympic gold medal come 2028. I'd really love to have one of them around my neck.”
If nothing else, it would look great with the Dior.
