Paris 2024 3x3 basketball: USA women find chemistry at right time, capture Olympic bronze medal
When the United States 3x3 women's basketball team won gold at Tokyo 2020, the sport’s first Olympic foray, the team chock-full of WNBA stars made it look rather easy.
At the Olympic Games Paris 2024, there was no easy road for Team USA. Even before the Opening Ceremony, the team lost experienced 3x3 player Cameron Brink to a torn ACL (anterior cruciate ligament) in her left knee. Rhyne Howard missed several WNBA games with an ankle injury.
Once they got to Paris, the USA lost their first three games and stood on the brink of elimination. The team looked disjointed at times, and looked like they didn’t have much chemistry. While two of the players, Cierra Burdick and Hailey Van Lith, played together over the summer, Dearica Hamby (Brink’s replacement) and Howard were busy with WNBA duties.
Before the Olympics, Van Lith talked about how the team had to create chemistry quickly.
“With three on three, you have to fast-track the chemistry. I haven't ever played with Dearica," Van Lieth told Olympics.com then. “You just have to spend every moment you're awake with each other and you eat every meal together. When you have downtime, you hang out together and you just have to get comfortable with each other fast. If you trust the process, it happens.”
Around the fourth game of pool play, the USA found that chemistry. They beat Spain 17-11. Then came wins over France, Canada and China. They were finding each other on the court. They were coming together.
Those wins earned the team a spot in the quarterfinals, and they started to make their shots from beyond the arc. They won against China, 21-13, and headed to the semifinals.
Spain needed overtime to overcome the USA by a score of 18-16 and send the Americans to the bronze-medal game. The US players knew that the expectation for any American team playing basketball is gold, and now they had to fight for the bronze.
“When you wear USA Basketball across your chest, the standard is gold. That's the only thing on my mind [and] that's the only thing that I'm thinking about working for, preparing for, so that’s the goal,” Burdick said before the Olympics.
The USA women’s basketball team is looking for its eighth straight gold medal. The expectation is there for the American men’s 5x5 team as well. Unfairly or not, this puts pressure on the 3x3 teams, and the bronze-medal game is not something American teams are used to.
But once again, this USA team came together and found a way to win 16-13. Even when Canada got off to a quick start and the Americans couldn’t hit a 2-point shot, they turned to the inside game to win the bronze medal.
“After we lost this morning and had our gold dream crushed, we were down. We were kind of feeling sorry for ourselves. It took a lot of mental toughness just to compete in this game,” Van Lith said afterwards. “I hope the people at home have a lot of respect for the teams in this tournament. There are a lot of great teams. Even beating Canada for this bronze medal is a big win for us. The USA is new to 3x3 so we are hoping to grow the game and next time get the gold. But we still got a medal for our country.”