Olympics Rugby Sevens captains photo call ahead of Paris 2024 [Source: World Rugby]

Fiji waits with bated breath for our campaign at the Paris Olympics men’s rugby sevens to get underway, and coach Osea Kolinisau says their biggest rivals at the Olympic Games are they themselves.

Our national side have long been known to be prefect on days where no team in the world can fathom up to the champion Fijian athletes.

This was evident during the 2016 Olympics, where the seven side had smiles even before running onto the pitch for the final against Great Britain.

After the 43-7 win, the then coach Ben Ryan had said, when the Fijians are smiling, you know the team will rip all others to shreds.

Fast forward post two Olympic medal wins, and Fiji is not having the best of outings for the past two seasons in the World Series, having not won a tournament since May 2022.

They have not won a Cup title at any location since Toulouse on the 2022 series, which was 22 tournaments ago.

Head coach Osea Kolinisau has told FBC News in Paris that even before competition starts, one of the demons they must fight is the distractions at the Games Village.

“That’s something I’ve told the boys, coming into the Olympic village you got to be tough mentally because there’s going to be a lot of distractions becuase in the 7s series it’s only rugby teams but here there are athletes from all over the world so we have to make sure we’re switched on mentally so we focus on the goals we set and the work we need to do in the village and at training.”

The 2016 Olympic gold medalist says if Fiji gets it right mentally than people will be chasing shadows on the field.

The national side has a rest day today before the captain’s run tomorrow.

They’ll play Uruguay at 3am on Thursday followed by USA at 6.30 am then France at 1.30 am on Friday.