She is already regarded as one of Australia’s most dynamic female athletes, and is without peer in all the footballing codes as far as try-scoring ability.
But you can now add “toughest” to the list for sevens star Maddi Levi, too, after her remarkable return from a serious knee injury in the space of eight days helped the Australian women’s sevens team beat arch-rivals New Zealand and claim the 2025-26 World Seven Series title.
Needing to beat the Kiwis in Bordeaux on Monday morning – in the last of three “Grand Final” tournaments – to claim the crown, the Australians beat New Zealand 26-19, and Levi’s two tries saw her named player of the final.
Tries and MVP awards are now standard for Levi, but the 24-year-old’s road to the final was anything but routine, having been limping around in a leg brace just eight days earlier following a painful knee injury suffered at the penultimate World Seven Series tournament in Spain.
Speaking from France on Tuesday, Levi revealed she had suffered a grade two medial ligament tear in her left knee and had barely run throughout the week leading up to the Bordeaux finale.
She was still selected by coach Tim Walsh, but in a calculated strategy, Levi sat out the opening two days, and only laced up her boots for the semi-final and final on Sunday (local time).
“I probably didn’t really get the hope I would actually play until the Sunday morning,” Levi said.
“We were just playing by ear and assessing the stability of my knee, and to see if all my other muscles were still firing. I did a grade two MCL, so I was very lucky that it wasn’t fully ruptured.”
Levi suffered the injury off the ball against the USA in the pool stages of the tournament in Valladolid, and watched on in a leg brace as her Australian teammates went on to win the final.
“It was pretty sore, and I guess I was in a bit of shock,” she said. “But we got some scans and then started to have a few chats.”
Walsh, Levi and medical staff weighed up the pros and cons of her being selected in the squad for Bordeaux. Though Levi said she didn’t want to be selfish and take a spot of a fully fit squad member, it was decided to roll the dice and see if their key try-scorer could be strapped up and play at some stage.
“On Friday [in pool rounds] it was still a bit unstable and if I went out, there was probably a chance of me actually doing worse damage, and my main focus was to make sure that we don’t make things worse – obviously next year is an Olympic qualifying year and I would take [missing] one tournament over a six-month injury.”
Levi warmed up again on Saturday and playing in the quarter-final against Spain was considered, but it was decided to give her another night’s healing.
“That was the conversation I had with Walshy about selection, obviously I hadn’t played any of the tournament. He didn’t know what ability I would come back to, and I was like ‘if I don’t get picked I don’t get picked’, but I will put my best foot forward for the last two games. And obviously the final just turned out great,” Levi said.
“I was bit sore after when you win nothing’s too sore. As I said after, the girls had played five games before and done all the hard work, and I had only played one. So in that final it was about what I could do to help them out and contribute.
“But it’s funny because obviously I played the last two games, and now I’m here back in the knee brace again, to help with the recovery.”
A shining light throughout the season alongside the likes of captain Isabella Nasser, Faith Nathan and her sister Teagan, Levi was nominated for World Sevens Player of the Year for the fifth straight year (she won in 2024) but the gong went to New Zealand’s Jorja Miller.
Levi said the Australian women’s side’s series victory was a reward for their consistency and improvement across the whole season, which saw them make the finals in all six regular season tournaments, and all three tournaments in the new Grand Final series, too. They lost five of the first six finals to the Kiwis, and the first in the Grand Final series too, in Hong Kong.
But New Zealand finished third in Valladolid, and with ample points with second-placed finishes, Australia took their chance to swoop in and won the last two tournaments.
“It means a lot for us,” Levi said. “It’s been the most successful season this year. We’ve made every single final which is just like a consistency piece we’ve lacked in previous years.
“It shows we’ve been building, and we’ve been knocking on the door with New Zealand with each final. We were getting closer and closer, and to secure the win at the end, it just shows the depth we have and shows what we’ve been working hard towards, was all worth it.”
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Iain Payten is a senior sports reporter for The Sydney Morning Herald.Connect via X or email.