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American women win eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal in basketball
PARIS (AP) — A’ja Wilson scored 21 points and the U.S. women’s basketball team survived its biggest challenge in its unprecedented streak of eight consecutive Olympic gold medals, beating France 67-66 on the Paris Olympics on Sunday.
No team has been in a position to put the Americans off during their impressive 61-game winning streak. Only two of those victories were by single digits before the France match.
The eight-straight gold medal win broke a tie with the U.S. men’s program, which had won seven in a row from 1936-68. The women’s victory got here lower than 24 hours after the U.S. men’s team defeated France in the title match, marking the primary time in Olympic history that the identical two teams competed in each gold-medal matches.
Unlike the boys’s match, this time the sport was decided only in the last minute and by the French team’s last shot, which landed just beyond the three-point line.
The Americans led 67-64 with 3.9 seconds left after a pair of free throws by Kahleah Copper. Marine Johannes passed the ball to Gabby Williams, who caught the ball just outside the 3-point line and lobbed it over the outstretched arms of Breanna Srewart for the ultimate advantage.
There was a transient delay before the officials signaled it was a two-pointer, which sparked celebrations and plenty of hugs for the Americans, but left the French players in disbelief as they’d come up just short.
Williams, who scored 19 points, had hit a 3-pointer seconds earlier to bring France to inside one point before Copper’s free throws.