“We said we needed a few players to beat France,” said coach Cheryl Reeve. “And Kahleah Copper was a player we needed for France.”

Copper, who was also a force in the second half as the U.S. struggled to stay atop the fluctuating scoring system, finished with 12 points, five rebounds, two assists and two steals.

“I think the gold medal is the benchmark,” said Alyssa Thomas. “No matter where we are in the world, that’s our goal and that’s why we came here.”

Diana Taurasi has achieved this standard for a record sixth time. She won her first gold medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics, and she has achieved the gold standard at every Olympic Games since then, including the 2024 Paris Olympics. She is only the third Olympian ever to win six or more gold medals in the same event, and the first American to do so.

Brittney Griner didn’t know if she would ever play basketball again after her stint in a Russian prison. She was filled with anxiety as the team rode the train from Lille, where the pool games were being played, to Paris.

“I hadn’t been on the train since my time on the prison train and there was a little moment of fear and I relived it for a second,” Griner said. “I had a little moment and just refocused on all the little things I learned in counseling, just grounded myself and I’ve been fine ever since.”

Today, just 20 months after returning to the United States, Griner is already a three-time gold medalist and was in tears after winning his last medal.

“It means so much to me and my family to be here,” Griner said. “My country fought so hard for me to be able to stand here, so this gold medal will hold a special place in my heart.”

The U.S. women continue the tradition of success from those Olympics — along with a 61-game winning streak dating back to 1992 — but basketball’s global reach hasn’t made it easy for them. The U.S. women’s basketball team will continue to be a team that relies on the unique strengths of its individual players to win championships.

“They don’t care who gets the credit,” Reeve said. “They just want to win. And that’s when we said if we could do that, we could reach our greatest heights, and we did that. So I’m really proud of us.”

Madie Chandler writes for Team USA as a doctoral student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.