PARIS — The American fans started chanting “USA, USA” with 17.4 seconds left. They didn’t say it with much conviction, which was understandable, given that their hearts were still solidly lodged in their throats at the time.
What was supposed to be a breezy coronation for the U.S. women’s basketball team Sunday afternoon, in the final event of the 2024 Summer Olympics, a figurative march down the Champs-Élysées to its eighth straight Olympic gold medal, turned into the most uncomfortable, these-pants-are-two-sizes-too-small-for-me afternoon. The host French women, just like the host French men the night before against the U.S. men in the same building, were physical and tough, playing off the energy of another loud crowd at Bercy Arena.
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And the American women were, plainly, awful for the first 20 minutes, kicking the ball all over creation, getting bumped off their spots on the floor regularly and losing the energy battle to the ferocious French defenders.
“They did a good job of mucking up the game,” U.S. guard Kelsey Plum said.
When France jumped out to a 10-point lead early in the third quarter, this puppy looked lost. And oh, the ramifications if the streak ended.
But the U.S. showed plenty of heart in the last 15 minutes — heart that it hadn’t had to show at all during this tournament. Heart that the U.S. has had to show only sporadically during the last 30-plus years, as this program has steamrolled the rest of the world. A’ja Wilson, who started the game 2 of 11 from the floor, found her voice, scoring 13 of her 21 points in the last 13-plus minutes. Guards Kelsey Plum and Sabrina Ionescu settled the team down. A great set featuring Breanna Stewart and guard Kahleah Copper got a layup in the biggest moment of the game.
But they never could relax. They could only exhale, after France’s Gabby Williams, who’s part of UConn 4 Life, but who’s playing overseas full-time rather than in the WNBA, banked in a shot at the buzzer, with her team down three.
Except, her foot was on the 3-point line.
USA 67, France 66.
UNBELIEVABLE ENDING IN PARIS. 😱
Gabby Williams banked it in at the buzzer but her FOOT WAS ON THE THREE-POINT LINE. TEAM USA WINS BY A SINGLE POINT.#ParisOlympics pic.twitter.com/DJI7YxfVMl
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 11, 2024
Coach Cheryl Reeve, you get the first celebratory swig of Maalox.
“It was ugly for a reason — we both made it hard for each other,” said Reeve, pointing out that these were the two best defenses in the tournament field.
“It wasn’t the prettiest of games,” Wilson said, “but those are the ones, sometimes, you’ve got to grind out. And I think we did a decent job of doing that. But it was an electric atmosphere. I feel like everyone sitting here felt it. And it was a great one to play in. Like (Stewart) said, I’m glad we kept the main thing the main thing, and took care of business. Because that was what we wanted to come to Paris for. Paris showed us a good time.”
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Of course, the U.S. women hadn’t lost an Olympic game in 32 years and had won 60 straight Olympic games since 1996 going into Sunday’s contest. Yet that streak is as much a heavy woolen cloak over the program as it is a statement of the incredible performances of the game’s best players and coaches over the last 30-plus years. The pressure to never, ever lose, to always be the best team in the world, is a lot to tote around, and especially as the world is catching up, with more countries committing more resources to grow their national programs.
This year, it wasn’t good enough for some that the U.S. roster featured two players with two WNBA Most Valuable Player awards in Wilson and Stewart, and great mid-career vets like Jackie Young and Copper and Jewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray, and next-generation talents like Plum and Ionescu. Even as they won and won and won, so much was made about who wasn’t on the team, rather than who was.
If you won, you didn’t win by enough; if you win gold, you could have won platinum, or grown the game globally, or cured diabetes or whatever, if you’d just had this player on the team instead of that one. Some people, like Nneka Ogwumike, have a case to be salty with USA Basketball. Not everyone does.
At any rate, the streak continues. And Sunday’s U.S. win exemplified how these Olympics, in so many ways, not only showcased dominant women athletes but made a path for those who had to dig deep to pull out medals. These were the first Olympics that sought full gender parity — with as many women athletes competing as men. And throughout the fortnight, women were among the Games’ most electric performers.
U.S. sprinter Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone annihilated the field in the women’s 400-meter hurdles, setting a world record in the process, while Gabby Thomas won golds in the women’s 200-meter and in the 4×100 and 4×400-meter relays. America’s Tara Davis-Woodhall was dominant in the women’s long jump, too.South Korea’s Lim Si-hyeon set a world record in women’s individual archery. And Great Britain’s trio of Katy Marchant, Sophie Capewell and Emma Fincuane set world records in three heats of the women’s team sprints in cycling.
Sifan Hassan won gold in the women’s marathon Sunday, the end of a 10-day stretch in which she also competed in two other grueling events. (Andre Weening / BSR Agency / Getty Images)
It obviously wasn’t easy for any of them to excel. But the grind of the Games was evident with other female athletes, too.
Start with long-distance runner Sifan Hassan of the Netherlands, who decided to run the women’s 5,000-meter, the 10,000-meter and the marathon — in the space of 10 days. Sunday, after running 26 miles, Hassan sprinted past Ethiopia’s Tigst Assefa in the final half-mile to win the gold, to go with the bronze medals she won in the 5,000 and 10,000.
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Again: Hassan had run more than 38 miles in the last 10 days. And she sprinted at the end of a flipping marathon to win her gold! Who are you?
Algerian boxer Imane Khalif, subject to the ugliest kind of speculation about her gender from a shady boxing organization, won gold in the women’s welterweight division Friday.
Sha’Carri Richardson, who was beaten out for the gold in the women’s 100-meter race by St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred, came roaring back in the 4×100 relay, bringing the gold to the U.S. by running a blistering anchor leg, rallying from fourth to first with a 10.01 split.
Simone Biles and Katie Ledecky cemented their GOAT statuses here, with Biles winning the all-around women’s gymnastics gold, and Ledecky becoming the most decorated American woman athlete in history, winning her 14th Olympic medal here by capturing the gold in the 800-meter freestyle. But they didn’t win every event in which they participated. They were, a few times, beaten out, fair and square — Biles in the individual balance beam by Italy’s Alice D’Amato; Ledecky in the 400-meter freestyle by Australia’s Ariarne Titmus. But they celebrated their wins, as well as their opponents’ wins.
So it kind of made sense that the U.S. women’s basketball could never breathe, could never run downhill, for one minute Sunday. France came at their necks. They have dreams, too.
With the U.S. up 60-59 with 1:32 left, Reeve drew up a great ATO (after-timeout) set in the huddle, getting the ball to Stewart at the foul line and running Copper off of Stewart’s action. Copper took the handoff from Stewart and went in for an uncontested layup, giving the U.S. a three-point lead. It was the first time it had run that action in the entire Games.
Gabby Williams’ last-ditch effort to force overtime against the Americans went in — but her foot was on the 3-point line and the U.S. hung on for gold. (Sarah Stier / Getty Images)
“When we talked about playing France, long before France was our opponent, there were a couple of players where we said, ‘We’re going to need so-and-so for France,'” Reeve said. “And Kahleah Copper was a player we needed for France. And so, we think about being in these situations, and what can you do for Kah? Getting Kah downhill. And Stewie, man, she looked like a quarterback, the way she stuck it in her gut.”
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Minutes later, these women were able to celebrate themselves, and keep the hoops dynasty going for another cycle, and represent for all the other women who’ve shined so much here.
Wilson was asked about how well women athletes have done here.
“I’m not surprised at all,” Wilson said. “I feel like the work we put in, the weight, the feeling that we always carry, we wear that on our sleeves, and we wear it with a lot of pride. So when it’s time to shine bright under these big lights, women are always going to prevail in that. ‘Cause we’re used to it. It’s nothing. We have women who’ve birthed children. There’s someone that was like six months pregnant here, crushing it.
“Like, when it comes to showing up and showing out, I’m always going to bet my money on a woman. Because, we’re just phenomenal. I’m not trying to diss the men. Love to y’all. But at the end of the day, the things we go through, the weight we carry, the mental aspect that we approach things in life, there’s not a lot of people who can crush it the way we do.”
GO DEEPERFor Brittney Griner, a gold-medal Olympic run brings a gratitude for freedom(Top photo of the U.S. women’s basketball team celebrating with their gold medals: Garrett W. Ellwood / NBAE via Getty Images)
David Aldridge is a senior columnist for The Athletic. He has worked for nearly 30 years covering the NBA and other sports for Turner, ESPN, and the Washington Post. In 2016, he received the Curt Gowdy Media Award from the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame and the Legacy Award from the National Association of Black Journalists. He lives in Washington, D.C. Follow David on Twitter @davidaldridgedc
