The USA women’s basketball team laid their claim as the most dominant team in the history of the Olympics on Sunday afternoon, surviving a nerve-shredding final against France to win 67-66 and secure their eighth consecutive gold medal in the final event of the Paris Games.
In a back-and-forth contest before a boisterous crowd at the Bercy Arena that chanted loudly with each France basket, the Americans trailed by double digits in the third quarter before fighting back to extend their record of 61 successive wins in Olympic competition that dates back to 1992. In doing so, the USA women established the record for the longest Olympic gold medal sequence in a traditional team sport, eclipsing the previous mark set by the USA men’s basketball team, who won seven in succession from 1936 through 1968.
A’ja Wilson scored a game-high 21 points in a contest that was only settled when Gabby Williams’s last-second basket off a cross-court pass from Marine Johannes came from just inside the three-point line, costing the hosts a chance to extend the game to overtime by centimeters. That France kept it so close was remarkable enough considering only two teams during the US team’s record win streak have managed to keep the margin within single digits.
“We were just resilient in what we needed to do,” said Wilson, who earned her second Olympic gold. “We kept going, bucket for bucket. That’s great basketball and that is what people want to see. Our defense kind of settled in and we got stops and we started feeling it together.”
The showdown between USA 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. This one was a little closer.
For all their firepower, the USA team entered the gold-medal game having failed to put together a complete 40-minute effort throughout the tournament. That pattern continued on Sunday, with the USA shooting just two of 12 (17%) from three-point range and finishing with 19 turnovers. The Americans were particularly careless with possession during a low-scoring first half that ended with the teams tied at 25 apiece.
When France rattled off 10 unanswered points for a 35-25 lead to start the third quarter, the already rollicking Bercy Arena erupted into a wall of sound. But the Americans closed the gap almost immediately through Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Breanna Stewart and super sub Sabrina Ionescu, taking a 41-40 lead on Napheesa Collier’s wide-open lay-up off a gorgeous Ionescu feed.
With LeBron James sitting courtside wearing the gold medal he won in the same building on Saturday night, France weren’t finished. They took a 51-49 lead with 5:31 left, bringing the crowd back into it, but were doomed by a series of critical mistakes down the stretch, including an airballed three-point attempt by Williams with France trailing 62-59 with 54 seconds left.
“Maybe they won’t say it’s just easy and we walk in and just win gold,” said USA center Brittney Griner, fighting back tears after winning her third gold. “Maybe they’ll stop saying that, because, like I said, we see everybody’s best shot. And we saw the shot that France gave us.”
With the win, Diana Taurasi secured 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 3x3 and 5x5 basketball.
The USA women have won eight successive Olympic gold medals and six of the past seven World Cups. Their only defeat in that stretch in Olympic or World Cup competition was in the 2006 World Cup semi-final against Russia.
The game on Sunday capped off a weekend when France and the USA played for both the men’s and women’s gold medals, the first time that has happened in Olympic history.
