Olympics 2020

U.S. Women Favorite for Basketball Gold

3 min read
FILE - United States' Diana Taurasi celebrates after making a three-point basket during the gold medal basketball game against Spain at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in this Saturday, Aug. 20, 2016, file photo. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi will try and become the first five-time Olympic gold medalists in basketball as they lead the U.S women's team at the Tokyo Games. The duo was selected for their fifth Olympics on Monday, June 21, 2020, joining Teresa Edwards as the only basketball players in U.S. history to play in five.(AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall, File)

Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird will try and become the first players ever to win five Olympic gold medals in basketball when the United States women's team begins play at the Tokyo Games.

Taurasi and Bird both played with Dawn Staley on the 2004 Olympic team. Staley helped start this unprecedented run with the 1996 squad and now is the first Black head coach of the women's national team after being an assistant for the last two Olympics.

It's been 25 years of dominance for the Americans in the Olympics. They've won 49 consecutive games on the biggest international stage. No team has come within single digits of the U.S. since Russia lost in the semifinals of the 2004 Athens Games.

The Americans haven't dropped an Olympic contest since 1992 when they were beaten in the semis by the Unified Team. While there are no guarantees, it would take a monumental upset for the team not to come home with gold.

The competition for the other two medals is wide open with Australia, Belgium, France, Canada, Serbia and Spain all having a shot at reaching the podium.

The Olympics switched to three pools of four teams for the Tokyo Games.

South Korea, Serbia, Canada and Spain are in Group A. Joining the U.S. in Group B are France, Nigeria and Japan. Australia, Puerto Rico, China and Belgium are in Group C.

Games begin on July 26 with the bronze medal game on Aug. 7 and the gold medal contest the next day to close out the Olympics.

Some other things to watch for at the Olympics in women's basketball:

WNBA FLAVOR

Besides the U.S. team, many of the other countries are led by WNBA stars. Half of the Australian roster, led by Liz Cambage, is currently in the WNBA. The Opals are led by Phoenix Mercury coach Sandy Brondello. Some of the other WNBA players in the Olympics include Emma Meesseman (Belgium), Kia Nurse (Canada), Marine Johannès (France), Astou Ndour (Spain), The WNBA will be on an Olympic break from July 15-Aug. 11.

AFRICAN DREAMS

Nigeria will try and end a winless drought for African teams at the Olympics since the 2004 Athens Games. The African nation went 1-5 that year and no team from that continent has won a game since. There are hopes for that to potentially change: Nigeria went 3-4 at the World Champions in 2018, falling to the U.S. in the quarterfinals.

FEWER GAMES

With the addition of 3×3 as a basketball discipline, teams are now only playing potentially six games at most in the tournament instead of eight. The last time the medalists played fewer than eight games was 1992. The 12 teams were put into three pools instead of two. The quarterfinalists will be the top two teams in each pool and two others based on a FIBA ranking system.

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