- Tasmanian royal surprises Australian athletes in Paris
- Team members lined up to take photos with Royalty
- Comes after the Danish Queen cheered against the Matildas last year
She may have defeated the Matildas at last year’s World Cup, but Queen Mary of Denmark has shown her enduring ties to Australia by visiting that country’s athletes ahead of the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics.
Although the Australian-born royal attended the event in an official capacity on behalf of Denmark, he still took the time to express his support for Team Australia.
Mary, now 52 and originally from Tasmania, renounced her Australian citizenship in 2004 when she married King Frederick X.
She attended the run-up to the opening ceremony on Friday with her husband, but made a detour to meet the Australian delegation.
Photos were shared on the official Instagram account of the Australian Olympic team showing Queen Mary posing with the athletes in the village.
The account reported: ‘Royalty in the Village! Australian-born Queen Mary of Denmark joined athletes in the Olympic Village.’
Chef de mission Anna Meares added: ‘Once an Aussie, always an Aussie… and the Queen of Denmark,’ alongside a photo with Mary.
“It was great to see Queen Mary in the food court today for lunch. I was a little nervous but she wished our athletes well and I invited her to our allotment for an Aussie coffee,” Meares continued.
Queen Mary of Denmark was a surprise visitor to the Australian athletes’ village ahead of the opening ceremony in Paris
Australian Olympic team captain Anna Meares said ‘once an Aussie, always an Aussie’ when she met Queen Mary
The athletes lined up to take pictures with the Australian royal in the Parisian village
Australian fans were thrilled when she showed her support.
One said: ‘Great to see Queen Mary supporting Australian athletes.’
Another added: ‘You can take the girl out of the country but she bleeds green and gold.’
A third said: ‘This makes me so emotional.’
Mary’s connection to the Olympics is personal: she met her future husband, then simply called ‘Fred’, at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney.
Reflecting on their first meeting at a bar called the Slip Inn, she said People‘The first time we met, we shook hands. I didn’t know he was the Prince of Denmark.
‘Half an hour later someone came up to me and asked, ‘Do you know who these people are?”
Princess Mary cheered for Denmark against the Aussies at the FIFA Women’s World Cup, but she stands firmly behind our Olympic team
Princess Mary met her future husband, Crown Prince (now King) Frederik of Denmark, at the 2000 Sydney Olympics (pictured together at the opening ceremony of the Paris Games)
After their marriage in May 2004, the couple had four children: Crown Prince Christian, 18, Princess Isabella, 17, and twins Prince Vincent and Princess Josephine, both 13.
It is not the first time that Mary has been faced with a test of loyalty between her former homeland and Denmark.
During the 2023 FIFA Women’s World Cup, she cheered for Denmark against Australia when the two countries faced each other.
Despite her Australian roots, she and King Frederik announced on their joint Instagram account that they would support Denmark.
The post read: ‘We’ll be cheering from ‘Top Over’ to ‘Down Under’ when the match against Australia starts soon in the World Cup. Come on, Denmark. Signed, the Crown Prince Couple.’