The U.S. women’s basketball team won a tense final against France 67-66 on Sunday afternoon, winning their eighth consecutive gold medal in the final game of the Paris tournament and solidifying their status as the most dominant team in Olympic history.
In a back-and-forth game with a rapturous crowd at the Bercy Arena roaring every French point, the USA battled back from a double-digit deficit in the third quarter to extend their streak of 61 consecutive Olympic wins, stretching back to 1992. The win gave the U.S. women the longest streak of Olympic gold medals in a traditional team sport, surpassing the record of seven straight wins by the U.S. men’s basketball team from 1936 to 1968.
A’ja Wilson scored a game-high 21 points, but the home team missed a chance to send the game into overtime by inches when Gabby Williams took a cross-court pass from Marine Johannes and smashed it in from just inside the 3-point line in the final seconds. That France came so close is remarkable considering that only two teams were able to hold the U.S. to within single digits during their record-breaking win streak.
“We just persevered and did what we had to do,” said Wilson, who won his second Olympic gold medal. “We kept scoring and kept the momentum going. That’s great basketball and that’s what people want to see. Our defense settled down, we got stops and we started to feel like we could play together as a team.”
The matchup between the U.S. and France was a rematch of the 2012 gold medal game in London, which the U.S. won by 36 points, the largest margin of victory in an Olympic basketball final. This time, it was a little closer.
Despite their offensive prowess, the U.S. team entered the gold medal game without having played a perfect 40 minutes throughout the tournament. That trend continued on Sunday, as the U.S. made just 2 of 12 (17 percent) 3-point attempts and committed 19 turnovers. The U.S. was especially sloppy with possession during a low-scoring first half that saw the teams end up tied at 25-25.
An already-charged Arena erupted in cheers when France scored 10 straight points early in the third quarter to take a 35-25 lead, but the USA quickly closed the gap thanks to efforts from Wilson, Kelsey Plumb, Breanna Stewart and super sub Sabrina Ionescu, who then made a slick pass to Napheesa Collier for a wide-open layup to take a 41-40 lead.
With LeBron James sitting courtside wearing the gold medal he won in the same building on Saturday night, France wasn’t done yet, galvanizing the crowd again with a 51-49 lead with 5:31 left in the game, but a series of crucial late mistakes, including a missed 3-pointer by Williams with 54 seconds left, cost them the game.
“Maybe they won’t say we just got the gold medal easily,” U.S. center Brittney Griner said, fighting back tears after winning her third gold medal. “Maybe they’ll stop saying that, because like I said, we’re seeing everybody’s best shot, and we saw the shot that France gave us.”
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With the win, Diana Taurasi won her record sixth individual Olympic gold medal, while Plumb and Jackie Young became the first players to win Olympic gold medals in both 3×3 and 5×5 basketball.
The U.S. women’s team has won eight consecutive Olympic gold medals and six of the last seven World Cups. Their only loss at an Olympic or World Cup during that span was to Russia in the 2006 World Cup semifinals.
Sunday’s match capped a weekend in which France and the United States competed for both the men’s and women’s gold medals, the first time in Olympic history that this has happened.
