“One team no one’s really talked about is France in France,” USA’s now six-time Olympic gold medallist Diana Taurasi had said at a press conference ahead of the tournament.
Unsurprisingly the veteran’s sixth basketball sense wasn’t off.
Les Bleues, led by Williams and Johannes, had stitched together a solid campaign during the Games at home in France.
Dropping only one game — their final group match against eventual bronze medallists Australia — the French then tore through the knockout stages, scoring a stunning 81-75 overtime win in the semi-finals against neighbours Belgium. That win sent Bercy Arena into a blaze.
The French, at home in Paris, were going to upgrade their bronze from Tokyo and perhaps even better their silver from London 2012.
In the final, they started strongly.
With dogged defending, the home team gripped tightly onto the coattails of the USA. Though not quite able to punish the reigning champions as they might have liked — the score 25-25 at halftime — the 13 turnovers committed by the Americans in the opening 20 minutes felt like just reward for their suffocating efforts.
When France went on a 10-0 run to claim the biggest lead of the night in the third frame, Bercy began to believe that their Bleues were on to end one of the greatest Olympic win streaks. And had it not been for the grit of USA’s A’ja Wilson, battling through an uncharacteristically slow start, the feisty French might have had their way.
But Team USA, consummate Olympic basketball professionals, would not be denied. Wilson, Kelsey Plum, Sabrina Ionescu and company rallied until the last to take the gold by the narrowest of margins at 67-66.
