The U.S. ladies’s basketball staff received its straight eighth Olympic gold medal, beating host France by the tightest of margins: 1 level. Crew USA received 67 to 66 in a contested remaining match that got here right down to the final shot.
Led by A’ja Wilson, who scored 21 factors, the U.S. survived a last-second shot by Gabby Williams that was simply contained in the 3-point line to carry off France.
No staff had been capable of push the People throughout this spectacular streak of 61 consecutive wins. The win was the closest the U.S. has ever received an Olympic gold medal because the 1988 Video games after they beat Yugoslavia by seven factors. The one different staff to maintain the U.S. at single digits in a gold medal sport was South Korea on the 1984 Video games.
“It is superb. It really is a dynasty that now we have constructed right here at USAB has been unbelievable,” Wilson stated. “And I’m so pleased with the resilience that my staff confirmed. We may have fumbled it many occasions, however we pulled by way of. To say I’m a two-time gold medalist, I’m so blessed.”
Michael Conroy / AP
With Sunday’s victory, the U.S. ladies’s legacy stretches to 61 consecutive wins in Olympic contests. It additionally breaks a tie with the U.S. males’s program that received seven in a row from 1936-68.
The ladies’s victory got here fewer than 24 hours after the U.S. males’s staff additionally beat France within the title sport. This was the primary time in Olympic historical past that each gold medal video games featured the identical two groups.
In contrast to the lads’s sport, this one got here right down to the ultimate minute and one final shot by France that was simply contained in the 3-point line.
The People had been up 67-64 with 3.9 seconds left after Kahleah Copper hit two free throws. Marine Johannes introduced the ball up the courtroom to Williams and the previous UConn standout caught the ball simply contained in the 3-point line and banked in over the outstretched arms of Breanna Stewart for the ultimate margin.
There was a short delay earlier than the officers signaled that it was a two-point shot, which led to the start of a celebration and plenty of blissful hugs for the People and left the French gamers standing in disbelief after falling simply quick.
“Gabby hit some nice photographs down the tip, powerful photographs,” Wilson stated. “We understood what we had in our locker room and leaning on one another and speaking to at least one one other and believing that we believed in one another and that is the best factor about it.”
Mark J. Terrill / AP
The American gamers went to have fun with the celebrities sitting courtside together with males’s basketball gamers LeBron James, Bam Adebayo, Derrick White, together with U.S. ladies’s greats Lisa Leslie, Sue Chook and Daybreak Staley.
Williams, who completed with 19 factors, had hit a deep 3 a couple of seconds earlier to get France inside one earlier than Copper’s free throws. She received a consoling hug from Staley.
The victory gave Diana Taurasi a sixth consecutive gold medal, making her essentially the most adorned basketball participant in Olympic historical past, breaking a tie with longtime teammate Sue Chook, who received 5.
Taurasi, who did not play within the gold medal sport, has been humble in regards to the potential report, saying she cares extra in regards to the staff successful than her particular person success.
It has been a attempting Olympics for her as she did not begin any of the knockout section video games, the primary time she wasn’t within the opening lineup because the 2004 Olympics.