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“Andscape at the Olympics” is an ongoing series exploring the black athletes and culture surrounding the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.

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PARIS – The U.S. women’s basketball team put in a convincing performance at the Olympic Games on Sunday, narrowly defeating France 67-66.

This was the eighth Olympic gold medal in a row for the women’s team, which has not lost at the Olympic Games since 1992. Sunday’s victory was also the 61st Olympic victory in a row in 32 years.

In a city where African-American singer Josephine Baker became a legend, the team’s performance was a demonstration of power by women in general and black Americans in particular.

A’ja Wilson, the U.S. forward who scored the game’s most points with 21, said she expected nothing less.

“This doesn’t surprise me at all because when it comes to getting the job done, a woman will always take the initiative and get it done,” she said. “When it comes to shining in the spotlight, we will always prevail because we are used to it.”

The dominance of the US women’s team was a testament to this strength.

Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone won two gold medals and broke her own Olympic record in the 400-meter hurdles. Sprinter Gabby Thomas won the 200 meters and was part of the winning 4×100-meter and 4×400-meter relay teams. She is the second U.S. runner since Allyson Felix in 2012 to win three Olympic gold medals. Tara Davis-Woodhall won gold in the long jump. Sha’Carri Richardson took silver in the 100 meters, running a thunderous finish to help the women’s 4×100-meter relay team to gold. The women’s 4×400-meter relay team nearly set a world record. Lauren Scruggs made history by becoming the first black American to win an individual medal in fencing. The women’s gymnastics team, led by the sensational Simone Biles, showed its superiority by winning gold in the team final and earning seven combined medals in the individual events.

At a moment in American history when a black woman, Vice President Kamala Harris, is seeking to become president of the United States, the question is whether the spectacular performances – particularly of black women at the Olympics – will give Harris a boost in the U.S. If you think athletes are oblivious to the political winds blowing at home, you’re wrong.

One only had to read Biles’ social media post last week after she won her individual gold medal. Biles posted “I love my black job” with a heart emoji on August 2. The post was a not-so-subtle jab at former President Donald Trump, who was heavily criticized for saying that “black jobs” were being taken by undocumented immigrants.

Before the Olympics began, U.S. basketball guard Stephen Curry voiced his support for Harris. Curry and Biles reminded that athletes appeal to an important young voting demographic and potential voters. Female athletes could play a bigger role than expected in voter registration and generate excitement, especially for Harris.

Racism and misogyny are very much alive and well in the United States. Nowhere was this more evident than in the reaction to gymnast Jordan Chiles winning the individual bronze medal in the floor exercise after she moved up from fifth to third place following an appeal by U.S. coach Cecile Landi (the International Olympic Committee has since announced it will reassign the bronze medal to Ana Barbosu of Romania, which U.S. Olympic officials have appealed). The Chiles episode was a complex comedy of errors that resulted in mistakes that broke the hearts of two young ladies who deserved them – first Barbosu and now Chiles, who was the victim of a scoring error.

The second and more disturbing element was the racially and gendered vitriol that Chiles faced on social media. The vitriol was so vicious that Chiles was forced to avoid social media for the sake of her mental health.

The Olympics will be the last semblance of global unity, and certainly unity in the United States, heading into what is sure to be a divisive election campaign between Trump and Harris. The former president has already signaled his intention to use racist stereotypes and exploit misogyny.

“This election is going to come down to gender,” said Nadia Rawlinson, co-owner of the WNBA Chicago Sky. “Are you going to be supportive or are you just going to pay lip service because it feels like the right thing to do, especially for men who feel disempowered and challenged by this kind of freedom of choice for women?”

I met Rawlinson on Sunday en route to the women’s basketball gold medal game. Although she is an ardent Harris supporter, Rawlinson is an even bigger proponent of women, women’s empowerment and women in power, all of which will play a role in the upcoming election.

“I care deeply about women. I care deeply about Black people winning,” she said. “I care deeply about creating opportunity and access. And that can happen on multiple platforms.”

Rawlinson studied at Stanford and earned her MBA from Harvard. She worked in Silicon Valley technology. At Slack Technologies, Inc., she was part of the management team that was bought out to Salesforce in a $27.7 billion sale in 2021. “It gave me the capital to say, ‘Where can I make an impact that’s bigger than myself?'” she said.

She looked at the WNBA, which has historically been at the forefront of social justice and activation initiatives. Rawlinson believed she could make a difference in the WNBA.

“Eighty percent of the people on the field are African American,” she said. “Many of those people identify as LGBTQIA. The core principle of the league is equality, access, fighting for justice and a seat at the table. I think if I bring my business expertise to the sport, one plus one can equal five.”

The WNBA is on the rise. Women’s sports are on the rise. That strength was on display during the Olympics. Will it be on display during a presidential campaign when racial identity and racial issues are front and center?

Rawlinson, 45, is returning to Illinois, where the Democratic National Convention begins in Chicago on Aug. 19, a day after the WNBA resumes its schedule, and she hopes the energy exuded in Paris by so many women and black women will continue into election season.

It cannot tell players who to vote for, but the organization can create an atmosphere where voting is encouraged.

“We are making a huge effort and pushing to make sure our players and management, everyone in the organization, are informed about the opportunity to vote and how to register if they are not. We encourage them to take time off to do so,” she said.

“So it’s very much about: ‘Do you even know what power you have?'”

They do.

Before leaving the podium on Sunday, Wilson asked about women’s dominance at the Olympics and gave an eloquent explanation for what the world had just witnessed.

Girl power.

“It’s nothing. We have women who have given birth. There’s even one here who was six months pregnant and did great,” she said.

“When it comes to putting yourself out there and showing off, I always go for women because we are phenomenal. The things we go through, the burdens we carry, the mental attitude we have about things in life – there are not many people who can handle it like we can. So kudos to all the women who are going out there.”

In an election campaign in which gender plays a central role, this is a remarkable confirmation.