PARIS — A’ja Wilson scored 21 points and the U.S. women’s basketball team survived the biggest challenge of its unprecedented run to eight straight Olympic gold medals with a 67-66 win over France at the Paris Games on Sunday.
No team had been able to push the Americans during this impressive streak of 61 consecutive wins. Only two of those victories had been by single digits before the game against France.
The eight straight golds broke a tie with the American men’s program that won seven in a row from 1936-68. The women’s victory came less than 24 hours after the U.S. men’s team also beat France in the title game. This was the first time in Olympic history that both gold medal games featured the same two teams.
Unlike the men’s game, this one came down to the final minute and one last shot by France that was just inside the 3-point line.
The Americans were up 67-64 with 3.9 seconds left after Kahleah Copper hit two free throws. Marine Johannes brought the ball up the court to Gabby Williams who caught the ball just inside the 3-point line and banked in over the outstreched arms of Breanna Srewart for the final margin.
There was a brief delay before the officials signaled that it was a two-point shot, which led to the beginning of a celebration and a lot of happy hugs for the Americans and left the French players standing in disbelief as they fell just short.
Williams, who finished with 19 points, had hit a deep 3 a few seconds earlier to get France within one before Copper’s free throws.