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For the second time in their history, Zambia will be one of 12 nations contesting women’s Olympic football at Paris 2024.

The Copper Queens made their debut at the postponed Tokyo 2020 Games, held in 2021.

Their emphatic rise has a lot to do two of the world’s best: Barbra Banda and Racheal Kundananji, the latter becoming the most expensive player in the world with her move to Bay FC earlier this year.

Drawn into Group B, they face a crop of some of the toughest opponents in the US, Germany, and Australia.

Zambia made their first-ever appearance at an Olympic Games three years ago, after a dramatic qualification process saw them clinch a birth ahead of Cameroon.

The 2020 CAF qualifying tournament, which spun over a year, was settled in a two-legged play-off, with the eventual debutants overturning a first-leg defeat.

Cameroon had one foot in Tokyo with a 3-2 win in the home leg, but the Zambian’s 2-1 victory in the return leg saw the tie end 4-4 on aggregate, with the Copper Queens sealing their spot courtesy of the away goal rule.

Their first outing at the Games would be a tough ask, grouped with the Netherlands, Brazil, and the Republic of China. Despite exiting earlier than hoped with a third-place finish in the table, they provided two of the most entertaining matches of the tournament.

Defeated 10-3 by the Dutch before a 4-4 thriller against the Republic of China, in which Banda became a history-maker by becoming the first-ever player to score back-to-back hat-tricks at the Olympics.

They’ll open their Paris account against four-time gold medallist, the USA, on Thursday (25 July).