Basketball: USA win women’s gold!
They were pushed to their very limits, but the USA’s incredible gold medal-winning streak continues.
An incredibly tight contest came down to the final minute of play. where the USA simply executed on the offensive end, and France didn’t.
With roughly 30 seconds to go France had the chance to cut the USA’s lead to 1 or even tie with a three, but an ill-advised shot from Marine Fauthoux was blocked by Breanna Stewart. It then became a free-throw game, with France now having to foul to stop the clock and hope that the USA would miss.
But despite the cauldron of noise coming their way, the USA came up clutch at the line to extend their lead.
A three-pointer by Gabby Williams brought France within 1 with 3.8 seconds left, but more free throws from Kahleah Copper gave the USA a three-point lead.
Incredibly, Williams hit another shot as time expired that sent the audience into raptures as they thought she had tied the game – but she was just inside the three-point line, meaning the USA win 67-66 in a game for the ages.
The French fans inside Bercy Arena were stunned – but only for a moment as the realisation of what their team had achieved in pushing the giants of women’s basketball right to the brink began to sink in.
The crowd stood as one to applaud both sets of players, with especially loud cheers for Les Bleus who were, understandably, emotional at the final buzzer.
Williams was incredible for France, scoring 19 points to go along with 7 rebounds and 3 steals. A’ja Wilson was unstoppable for the USA, scoring 21 points, grabbing 13 rebounds and blocking four shots.
The USA win their 10th gold medal and eighth in a row, with Diana Taurasi (who didn’t play in the final) earning a sixth gold medal – a record for an athlete at the Games in any team sport.
Silver goes to France, who finish on the podium for a second consecutive Games following the bronze they won at Tokyo 2020. Australia take the bronze after beating Belgium in the day’s earlier game.
🥇USA
🥈France
🥉Australia