Five members of the USA Women’s Basketball National Team that competed in the 2026 FIBA World Cup helped win the United States an eighth-straight gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
Those five players—Breanna Stewart, Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper and Napheesa Collier—ensured that the United States also won a fifth-straight World Cup gold medal on Sunday in Berlin.
That quintet set the tone for a 30-12 third quarter that turned a World Cup final against France that was trending
the wrong direction for Team USA into another example of why the Americans remain the queens of the basketball world.
After trailing by as many as 14 points in the first half, Team USA eventually cruised to a 97-79 victory.
Stewart reminded why her trophy case is overflowing, scoring 22 points on 70 percent shooting while grabbing 10 rebounds and dishing four assists. It was an effort that, in addition to a gold medal, would add another trophy to her case: World Cup MVP. She’s now the first-ever two-time World Cup MVP.
Young likewise turned in the kind of performance indicative of the only basketball player to win a high school state championship, NCAA national championship, WNBA championship, 3×3 Olympic gold medal, 5×5 Olympic gold medal and, now, FIBA World Cup gold medal. Named Player of the Game, Young scored 18 points, going 4-for-7 from 3, in addition to collecting six rebounds and five assists. Young also joined Stewart as the American representatives on the All-Star Five.
Gray confirmed her champion credentials, providing a sense of stability for Team USA in an uneasy first half as she finished with 12 points and five assists. Kahleah Copper similarly affirmed her big-moment bona fides, fighting her way to 15 points while also raising her defensive level. Collier completed the first five, demonstrating an elevated defensive commitment and urgency as Team USA snuffed out France’s hope for a medal brighter than silver.
As Stewart emphasized after the game, Team USA is the standard, and it’s the responsibility of the players wearing red, white and blue to both live up to and extend that standard.
The American vets, with that ferocious third-quarter kick. did just that.
When their names were then called, the next generation of Team USA talents followed their example, with the defensive versatility of Aliyah Boston, defensive playmaking of Angel Reese and Rhyne Howard and timely shotmaking of Caitlin Clark building on the gold medal-winning momentum established by the vets.
All together, the American effort overwhelmed a French team that, until the final 20 minutes of the tournament, had put together a run that seemed fated for gold.
In the first half, Gabby Williams, once again, looked like the competition’s best player, as she led a French side that combined aggressive defensive with efficient offense. Then, the French dream dried up, as Team USA shut down Williams and France’s 3-balls refused to fall. So close to stealing gold in Paris two summers ago, France instead experienced a definitive defeat, falling down by nearly 30 points before mustering a more respectable final margin.
Williams, who finished with 20 points and seven assists in the final, still more than earned her way onto the All-Star Five, with Germany’s Leonie Fiebich and bronze-winning Spain’s Iyana Martín rounding out the group of individual honorees. In the third-place game, Martín, also named the World Cup’s Rising Star, tallied 22 points and nine assists to spur Spain to the 81-58 victory over Germany.
As is the American instinct, talk, almost instantly, will turn to the next challenge in 2028, and who will and who won’t be among the dozen selected to again defend the American dynasty at the Los Angeles Olympic Games against France, Spain and a women’s basketball world with evermore experience and ever less fear.
But for now, let’s appreciate that Stewie, Jackie, Chelsea, Kah and more were wearing red, white and blue in Berlin on Sunday, and that the USA Basketball Women’s National Team remains the greatest dynasty in all of sports.
