Tokyo 2020: US women's basketball team wins seventh straight Olympics gold

Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, the senior-most players in the squad, bagged their fifth gold medal in what has been unbelievable careers.

The US women's basketball team. (Image: Twitter)
By Nilavro Ghosh | Aug 8, 2021 | 2 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

The USA women’s basketball team reached an incredible milestone at the Tokyo Olympics as they secured the gold medal for the seventh straight time. Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, the senior-most players in the squad, bagged their fifth gold medal in what has been an unbelievable career at the Games. They beat hosts Japan in the final of the event on Sunday. Japan put up a good fight in the match but the US team was just too strong. At the end of the match, the scoreline looked one-sided but the match was not that comfortable for the victors. Nonetheless, it still is an incredible achievement as the US extended one of the best winning streaks at the Olympics in this generation.

Brittney Griner was the star player for the US side as she bagged 30 points, the highest of any player in the game. It had five rebounds and two assists.

The match ended with a scoreline of 90-75 in favor of the side from the US. The incredible winning streak for the team is now currently 35 matches in the Olympics.

Their last defeat came in the previous century when the US team was defeated in the semi-finals of the 1992 Olympic Games.

The match stood at 50-39 in favor of the American side at half-time. From that point on, there was no looking back. The players were determined to win the seventh straight gold and they swept the hosts aside to achieve it.

US women’s basketball team make history

Japan also had a good performance. Despite not finishing with the gold, they recorded their best-ever finish in the sport at The Games.

However, it was always going to be a huge task to defeat the US at the Games. They are undoubtedly the most dominant side in the sport and have eight out of the last nine Olympics.

There are only two occasions when the US did not win the gold. The first was in 1976 when the sport was first introduced to the Olympics.

They had reached the finals at the time but failed to beat a very good Soviet Union side. The US settled for silver at the time. The second occasion was in 1992 when they were knocked out of the semi-finals.

However, they still managed to bag the bronze medal that year. There has not been a single year in which the US women’s basketball team has not bagged a medal so far.