Australian rugby sevens captain Charlotte Caslick made a social media faux pas just hours after the team’s heartbreaking exit from Olympics medal contention.
Caslick posted an image to her Instagram Stories that was quickly deleted, showing her partying in a Paris nightclub surrounded by a group of men accompanied by the caption “4th on it but always 1st off it.”
It was a poor look in the wake of the team’s fourth-placed finish on the field which left many in tears and was well below expectations.
It came after the Australians were upset in back-to-back matches on Tuesday, falling to Canada in the semifinals and the United States in the bronze medal game.
The loss to the Americans was particularly painful with the U.S.’s Alex Sedrick stiff-arming an Australian opponent and running 94 yards for the winning try in the final seconds of the 14-12 win.
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“Heartbroken and real f–king sorry but always proud to represent Australia with these girls,” Caslick posted on social media after the loss.
Caslick is one of the most high-profile athletes in the sport after leading the team to an inaugural Olympic gold medal at Rio 2016.
“I’m pretty gutted,” Caslick told Rugby.com. “It’s the beauty of sevens and sport; that’s why we play it. It’s a game of moments and there’s probably a few things we would have loved to do differently, but we can’t take that back. It sucks, obviously; we want to come home with a medal, we’re the ones that train every day to have this feeling.”
The 29-year-old made headlines last week after taking a veiled swipe at the attention given to the women’s soccer team instead of rugby.
“I don’t know if they (the Matildas soccer team) will get out of the pool stages,” she told News Corp.
“We (Rugby Sevens) have been at the top of our game for years and years, always up there … with podium finishes in all of our series. And we probably don’t get the recognition.”