US women hoopsters also win olympic gold

The US hoop distaff also did their part to bolster the claim of American basketball superiority as they won their 4th straight Olympic gold medal by beating Australia 92-65. Lisa Leslie, playing in her final Olympic games, contributed 14 points and teammate Kara Lawson led all US scorers with 15 points. The Australians now have the ignominious distinction of having lost three straight gold medal games to the United States—all by double digits.

The US women have never let the rest of the world make a compelling case that they’re less than dominant. This win represented their 33rd straight in Olympic competition. Oddly, they are in many ways a mirror image of their male counterparts—laden with WNBA players and possessed with incredible depth and talent. They’re covered differently by the media, however, as even the international press is wowed by their dominance while they struggle and spin to portray the US men as a flawed team with many weaknesses.

With the victory, Leslie becomes only the 2nd Olympic basketball player—male or female—to win 4 gold medals. She joins another former US women’s hoop superstar, Teresa Edwards, in one of the more impressive achievements at the games. Leslie still looked solid, if no longer dominant, and her contributions suggested that she could potentially go for gold 4 years from now but to her credit she has decided to walk away from the sport while at the top of her game.

Australia, who also has a number of WNBA players on their roster, simply couldn’t match the United States depth. They were doing a decent job of contending with the US starters, and actually held a three point lead near the end of the first quarter. When the US bench players started entering the game, however, it was quickly “lights out” for the Aussies’ gold medal hopes. Kara Lawson—who nominally plays the same “sparkplug” role that Dwayne Wade does for the men—scored her 15 points off the bench on 5-5 shooting, and the US reserves outscored their Australian counterparts by a staggering 55-11 margin. The US was up 47-30 at the half, and the Australians couldn’t get closer than 12 points for the rest of the game.

Russia took the bronze medal with a 94-81 victory over host country China to round out the women’s basketball podium.