Lay, part of the victorious women's team in an event held on the home soil of Townsville, is now set to become only the second woman to have competed at table tennis in seven Olympics, with the first being Nigerian Olufunke Oshonaike.

She competed in the women’s doubles alongside Stella Zhou in 2000 in Sydney and from 2004 in Athens, she made the first of her unbroken run of women's singles appearances.

Born in Wenzhou, China, Lay moved to Melbourne in the early 1990s.

Outside her Olympic competition, she has also won five silvers and four bronzes at the Commonwealth Games since 2002.

Australia's men's and women's teams secured Olympic qualification on the opening day of competition without losing a single match.

The men defeated teams from Fiji, the Marshall Islands and New Zealand; the women proved too strong for Fiji and New Zealand.

The outcome means that Australia maintains its perfect record ever since the team events were introduced at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games. 

In both team disciplines, the colours of the green and gold have always been present at the Games.

Nicholas Lum and Minhyung Jee completed the Australian clean sweep by winning the single Paris 2024 place in the mixed doubles.

They had to work hard for it, however, against fellow-Australians Finn Luu and Jian Fang Lay, earning victory in a match that went to the full seven games by 6-11, 11-4, 5-11, 7-11, 11-7, 11-9, 11-9.