After three decades of US dominance, Australia’s women’s basketball team are determined to make history in Friday’s semi-final clash against the Americans
Opals star Lauren Jackson has vowed to reverse 30 years of defeats to Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics semi-final on Friday.Opals star Lauren Jackson has vowed to reverse 30 years of defeats to Team USA in the 2024 Paris Olympics semi-final on Friday.
Four years later, in Athens, the gold medal rematch saw the same result – although the Opals reduced the losing margin to 11 points. Another Olympics, another loss to the USA. At the Beijing Games in 2008, the Australians were forced to settle for their third consecutive silver medal, behind the Americans. In London, the teams met in the semi-final: another American victory, the Opals going on to claim bronze. An early exit in Rio spared the Australians yet another encounter with the USA.
Alanna Smith, one of seven current Opals to play their club basketball in the American WNBA, was more direct. “It’s just a big rivalry, even in the lead-up to the Olympics, I was playing in the US and they were talking shit. “They’ve had a history of winning, but now’s the time we can topple that. It would be sweet to take them down a peg, for sure, but we have to prepare for a fight.”
The USA, too, have been playing superb basketball so far in Paris. They won all three of their pool matches, against Japan, Belgium and Germany, with an overall points difference of plus-58. They had to fight harder in the quarter-final against Nigeria, who had downed Australia earlier in the tournament. But despite Nigeria’s best attempts, the Americans ran out 14 point winners. It is not for nothing that the USA are currently on a seven-Olympics gold medal streak.
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