The US women’s basketball team won for the eighth time in a row. Olympic The gold medal, after beating host France by the narrowest of margins: one point. Team USA won 67-66 in a competitive final that came down to the last shot.
Led by A’ja Wilson, who scored 21 points, the U.S. survived a last-minute shot by Gabby Williams from just a few steps from the 3-point line to preserve France’s lead.
No team could hold the Americans back during this remarkable 61-game winning streak. It was the closest the U.S. has ever come to winning an Olympic gold medal since the 1988 Games, when it beat Yugoslavia by seven points. The only other team to hold the U.S. to single digits in a gold-medal game was South Korea in 1984.
“It’s amazing. This dynasty that we’ve built here at USAB has been really amazing,” Wilson said. “And I’m so proud of the resilience that my team has shown. We could have missed a lot of times, but we pulled it off. To say that I’ve been a gold medalist twice, that’s just so lucky.”
Michael Conroy/The Associated Press
With Sunday’s win, the U.S. women’s Olympic winning streak extended to 61 straight victories. It also broke a tie with the U.S. men’s program, which won seven straight from 1936 to 1968.
The women’s win came less than 24 hours after the US men’s team won. He also won against France. In the final. This was the first time in Olympic history that the same two teams participated in both gold medal matches.
Unlike the men’s game, this one came in the last minute and France’s final shot was just a few steps from the three-point line.
The U.S. led 67-64 with 3.9 seconds left after Kahlia Cooper hit two free throws. Marin Johannes fed Williams, who shot the ball just inside the box before swiping it over Brianna Stewart’s arms for the third.
There was a short delay before officials signaled it was a two-point shot, sparking celebrations and lots of happy hugs from the Americans and leaving the French players standing in disbelief after losing by a narrow margin.
“Gabe hit some great shots at the end, tough shots,” Wilson said. “We understood what we had in the locker room, we relied on each other, we talked to each other and we believed in each other and that’s the biggest thing about it.”
Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press
The American players went to celebrate with celebrities sitting on the sidelines, including men’s basketball players LeBron James, Bam Adebayo and Derrick White, along with American women’s basketball greats Lisa Leslie, Sue Bird and Dawn Staley.
Williams, who finished with 19 points, had hit a deep three-pointer seconds earlier to pull France within one point before Cooper’s free throws. Williams received a comforting hug from Staley.
The win gave Diana Taurasi her sixth consecutive gold medal, making her the most decorated basketball player in Olympic history, breaking a tie with longtime teammate Sue Bird, who won five medals.
Taurasi, who did not compete in the gold medal match, was modest about the potential record, saying she cared more about the team win than her individual success.
It was a difficult Olympics for her as she did not start any of the knockout stage matches, the first time she was not in the opening squad since the 2004 Olympics.
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