Women’s basketball has actually battled for many years to be taken as seriously as the men’s sport, as well as although there are several factors that should not hold true, Team USA’s track record at the Olympics may be one of the most compelling debate yet.
The US females’s basketball group has won a lot more Olympic gold medals than any kind of other country, in a display screen of supremacy that measures up to that of the American males’s team.Let’s simplify. Female’s basketball was initially added to the Summer Olympics in 1976.
This means that the Tokyo Olympics noted the 12th look of the sport. Of the 12 gold medals awarded thus far, nine have actually mosted likely to the American ladies, who have actually been undefeated on the Olympic phase since 1996. Just 2 various other females’s groups have actually won gold at the Olympics: the Soviet Union and the 1992 «Unified Team,» consisting of athletes from former Soviet nations.
Historically, basketball is one of the sporting activities that American women have been most dominant in, in addition to football, gymnastics, and softball. With a win at the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup already under their belts, a win in Tokyo seemed inevitable— and of course, the group delivered.
As they always do. Group USA’s Sue Bird as well as Diana Taurasi Win a Record 5th Olympic Gold in Women’s Basketball
Twenty years after Sue Bird and also Diana Taurasi initially wore the same jacket, the longtime colleagues, opponents, as well as pals have made Olympic background. On the last day of competitors at the Tokyo Olympics, the US females’s basketball group defeated host country Japan 90-75 to win their seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal.
The triumph noted a document 5th Olympic gold for Bird and also Taurasi, greater than any type of various other athlete in the background of the sporting activity.
Both gamers have actually signaled that this Olympics might be their last, and also there couldn’t be a more fitting end to one of the most compelling storylines in ladies’s sports. Bird as well as Taurasi very first played together at the University of Connecticut, where they won an NCAA champion as a senior and also sophomore, specifically.
Bird won a total of two NCAA titles during her time at UConn; Taurasi won 3. Both guards got in the WNBA draft 2 years apart as well as were both selected first in general. As pros, they’ve won a mixed seven WNBA championships: four for Bird with the Seattle Storm, and also 3 for Taurasi with the Phoenix Mercury.
And then, of course, there’s the Olympic distinctions. To taurasi, bird and also date are both unbeaten in Olympic play, and also they’ve aided lead Team USA to 5 of their last seven Olympic gold medals, beginning in 2004. It’s a heritage the sports world will not soon fail to remember.