As the final buzzer sounded and the gold medal in women’s basketball came down to one foot, less than a foot inside the 3-point line, there were tears on both sides of the court. The scoreboard read: United States 67, France 66.
On the French side, there were tears of sadness – for squandering a 10-point lead in the second half and coming just short of a monumental upset in front of the home fans.
On the American side, there were tears of happiness – for an eighth consecutive gold, making them the most dominant team in Olympic history in any sport.
As the two teams shook hands and exchanged greetings after the game, there were heartfelt hugs for France’s Gabby Williams, the WNBA star with dual citizenship, who hit an off-balance shot as time expired but just had her foot on the 3-point line.
After the U.S. players saluted the crowd, Sabrina Ionescu made her way to thank several special supporters sitting courtside. She hugged Kobe Bryant’s widow, Vanessa, who was there with her family.
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Team USA’s Brittney Griner, roughly 20 months after returning home from a Russian prison, gave her wife a kiss. Her path to the gold medal was unlike anyone else’s after spending 293 days in incarceration not knowing whether she’d ever play basketball again.
A’ja Wilson shook hands with five-time gold medalist Sue Bird, who was sitting with several members of the gold medal-winning U.S. men’s basketball team: Derrick White, Bam Adebayo and tournament MVP LeBron James, who was there with his family.
Former U.S. women’s soccer star Megan Rapinoe and Spanish basketball great Pau Gasol were also among the celebrities sitting courtside for the gold medal game.
‘We just knew what we had to do,’ Wilson said. ‘We believed in each other and that’s the greatest thing about it.’