The U.S. women’s basketball team won its eighth straight gold medal in Olympic history with a 67-66 victory over France in the finals on Sunday afternoon in Paris. Games.
In a back-and-forth contest before a raucous crowd at Percy Arena, the Americans, who cheered loudly with every French basket, fell behind by double digits in the third quarter before fighting to extend their streak of 61 consecutive Olympic victories. back in 1992. In doing so, the USA women established the record for the longest Olympic gold medal streak in a traditional team sport, breaking the previous mark set by the US men’s basketball team, which had won seven in a row from 1936 to 1968.
A’jah Wilson scored 21 points in a contest that was settled only when Marine Johannes got inside the three-point line on a last-second basket by Gabby Williams on a cross-court basket. Centimeters extend the game into overtime. Notably, France kept it so close that only two teams managed to keep the margin within single digits during the USA’s record win.
“We were resilient in what we had to do,” said Wilson, who won his second Olympic gold. “We just kept going, bucket after bucket. That’s great basketball and that’s what people want to see. Our defense kind of settled down, we got stops and we started feeling it together.
The clash between the United States and France was a rematch of the gold medal game at the 2012 London Games, which the Americans won by 36 points, the largest margin of victory in an Olympic basketball final. He was a little too close.
For all their firepower, Team USA entered the gold medal game having failed to fully put together a 40-minute effort throughout the tournament. That pattern continued Sunday, as the USA shot just 2 of 12 (17%) from three-point range and finished with 19 turnovers. The Americans were careless in possession during a low-scoring first half that saw the teams tied at 25 apiece.
When France scored 10 unanswered points in the third quarter to take a 35-25 lead, the already-rolling Percy Arena erupted into a wall of sound. But the Americans quickly closed the gap with Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart and super sub Sabrina Ionescu, and Nafisa Collier’s wide-open layup off a beautiful Ionescu feed took a 41-40 lead.
France wasn’t finished as LeBron James sat courtside wearing the gold medal he won in the same building on Saturday night. They took a 51-49 lead with 5:31 to go, brought the crowd back into it, but France trailed 62-59 with a series of key fouls, including an airballed three-point attempt by Williams. There are seconds.
“Maybe they won’t say it’s easy, we’re going to go in and win the gold,” United States center Brittney Griner said, fighting back tears after winning her third gold. “Maybe they’ll stop saying that because, like I said, we’re seeing everybody’s best shot. We’ve seen the shot that France gave us.
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With the win, Diana Taurasi earned her sixth Olympic gold medal, the most by an individual in any team sport in history, while Plum and Jackie Young became the first players to win Olympic gold medals in both 3×3 and 5×5 basketball.
American women have won eight straight Olympic gold medals and six of the last seven World Cups. Their only loss in Olympic or World Cup competition was in the 2006 World Cup semi-final against Russia.
Sunday’s game capped off a weekend in which both France and the United States played for the men’s and women’s gold medals for the first time in Olympic history.
