Paris 2024: Zambian legend Barbra Banda smashes Olympic record against Australia

Zambia captain Barbra Banda scored a stunning first-half hat-trick against Australia at the Paris 2024 games to set a new Olympic Games record.

The 24-year-old forward scored a blistering hat-trick in the first period for Zambia in the second match of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games to give her country a 4-2 lead going into the half-time break.

Banda scored in the first and 33rd minute to give her side the lead against Australia and completed her hat-trick in first-half stoppage time to give the African side a clear lead.

The Orlando Pride forward’s hat-trick against Australia was her third treble at the Olympic Games, after netting three goals against the Netherlands and China in the 2020 edition of the women’s football tournament.

This helped the Zambian star beat Brazil’s Cristiane’s record of two hat-tricks to become the player with the outright most hat-tricks in Olympic Games women’s football history.

Banda’s record-breaking feat in the women’s football tournament at the Olympic Games also spilt over to the men’s side, as she also equalled a men’s Olympic record thanks to her hat-trick against Australia.

Banda’s third hat-trick at the Paris 2024 games against Australia made her the first player, male or female, to score a treble on three separate occasions since Argentina’s Domingo Tarasconi did so in the 1928 Olympic Games in Amsterdam.

Tarasconi scored an incredible 11 goals at the 1928 Olympic Games, including a hat-trick in the semifinal against Egypt, and four goals twice, against the United States and Belgium to help Argentina win a silver medal.