U.S. Women’s Basketball Makes It Eight Consecutive Olympic Golds After Narrow 67-66 Win Against France

PARIS – Less than 24 hours after the U.S. men’s basketball team defeated France to earn a gold medal, the women have done the same. The U.S. defeated the Olympic hosts, 67-66, on Sunday, marking its eighth consecutive gold medal effort and the 61st consecutive victory in the Olympic Games. And, like the men’s game, the women did the job in dramatic fashion.

The total of 67 points marks the fewest scored by a gold medal winner, the previous low being 74 scored by the U.S. in a victory over Australia for gold in the Olympic Games Athens 2004.

The U.S. women had enjoyed an average margin of victory of 22.3 points over their previous nine gold medal games. Their previous closest gold medal game was won by seven points over Yugoslavia in the Olympic Games Seoul 1988. Just one point was the difference between gold and silver on Sunday.

The last time the French women defeated the Americans was in 1971, also on a Sunday, in the preliminary round of the women’s World Championship.

Paris’ Bercy Arena mustered as much hopeful excitement as it could – one full section was prepped with French flags, wafting in the air-conditioned currents, awaiting the “Allez Les Bleus …” chants of the host country’s hopeful residents. They slung their chants at the American Goliath, the team of gladiators that hadn’t lost a game in the Olympics in 32 years.

The Americans had to overcome the force of the crowd and their own uncharacteristic limitations. The U.S. made just 34% of its shots including 2-for-17 3-point shooting, and committed 19 turnovers that led to 14 France points.

But Goliath was still too big for David. Trailing by three points in the final frantic seconds, a shot by Gabby Williams of France was just inside the 3-point line. After a brief moment before the officials confirmed the 2-point basket, the eighth straight gold medal in women’s basketball was coming back to American soil.

The eighth consecutive gold medal surpassed the record of seven set by the U.S. men’s basketball team from the inaugural tournament in 1936 through 1968.

A’ja Wilson’s 21 points, 13 rebounds, 4 blocks and 1 steal led Team USA as she turned up the intensity in the second half.

Second-half performances from Kelsey Plum and Sabrina Ionescu shifted the tide for the U.S. as they moved the ball into the hands of Wilson and Kahleah Copper, enabling the American offense to shift into a gear that it didn’t have in the first half. Plum’s 12 points included two massive 3-pointers in the third quarter to rally the Americans back from a 10-point deficit, the largest of the game. Ionescu’s three assists were also part of that push to remain within striking distance.