Zambian women national team captain, Barbra Banda, has made Olympic football tournament history by becoming the first player, male or female, to score three hat-tricks after she netted three times in her country’s 5-6 loss to Australia.
The 24-year-old Orlando Pride of USA forward had, in 2020 during the Tokyo Olympics, become the first player to score hat-tricks in back-to-back games against the Republic of China and the Netherlands, despite her side going winless and exiting in the group stages.
She repeated the feat in Zambia’s second match against the Aussies, thereby cementing her place in Olympics football history books.
The fast-paced striker has a reputation as the ‘most in-form forward in the world’ for a reason having scored 12 goals in her first 12 NWSL games, and went into the Paris 2024 with great expectations and did not fail to deliver.
According to Olympics.com, the Zambian captain is probably the greatest football talent in her country, inspiring a whole generation of young women.
“She began playing on the streets of Lusaka where it was taboo for women to play football,” Olympics.com said in a citation on her.
“She ended up joining one of the biggest clubs, the Green Buffaloes, before being the first player in Zambia to play in Europe followed by Super League club Shanghai Shengli where she is the top scorer.
“The 24-year-old is no stranger to women’s Olympic football, putting her name in lights at Tokyo 2020 three years ago.
“The Zambian captain became the first player in tournament history to score hat-tricks in back-to-back games, against the Republic of China and the Netherlands.
“Fast-forward to now, at the Nice Stadium, and the electric forward has added yet another three-goal feat to her name in a breathless 11-goal encounter against Australia that ended 6-5 in favour of the Aussies.
“Her slice of history was wrapped up inside the opening 45 minutes, with decisive strikes at the very start and end of the first half.
“Banda is now the first player in women’s football to score three hat-tricks at the Olympic Games. Her current tournament goal tally now stands at nine, five shy of Cristiane’s record (14).”