The U.S. women's national basketball team will play Germany on July 23 in a pre-Olympic exhibition in Paris, playing in London for the first time since winning the gold medal at the 2012 Olympics.
The match will take place at the O2 Arena in London. This is part of a series of showcase games for USA Basketball, with the men's national team facing South Sudan at the O2 Arena on July 20th and Germany on July 22nd.
“USA Basketball is looking forward to adding the women's national team to the USA Basketball Showcase in London,” USA Basketball CEO Jim Tooley said in a news release. “Playing against Germany will not only be a great opportunity for our team, but will also highlight the growth of women's basketball around the world as we prepare to defend our gold medal in Paris.”
Additionally, Germany and the United States are both in Pool C, meaning Team USA will face its final opponent at the Paris Olympics. Germany will be led by Dallas Wings star Sato Sabally, her sister and New York Liberty forward Nyara Sabally, and Liberty winger Leonie. Fievich. The other two countries on Team USA are Japan and Belgium.
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The women's national team's exhibition against Germany comes just days after the 2024 WNBA All-Star Game, where the U.S. Olympic team will play against the WNBA All-Stars. That exhibition will be held in Phoenix and is scheduled for July 20th at 8:30pm ET. USA Basketball announced Thursday that further details, including training camp details and final team rosters, will be announced at a later date.
The U.S. women's national team will be aiming for its eighth straight gold medal at the upcoming Olympics.
As the WNBA season approaches, the question remains who will join Team USA and try to do so. USA Basketball held its most recent pre-Olympic training camp in early February in Cleveland during the Women's Final Four. The final team may ultimately make a statement on what the committee values: youth and the future, or experience and proven success. Caitlin Clark, the presumptive No. 1 pick in Monday's WNBA Draft, is in the selection pool, but she has not yet participated in senior national team camp this season. She was invited to camp in Cleveland, but she did not attend after Iowa State advanced to the Final Four.
Other first-time Olympic hopefuls invited to recent camps include Aliyah Boston, Ryne Howard, Sabrina Ionescu, Arike Ogunbowale and Shakira Austin. Alesha Gray and Jackie Young both won gold medals in 3×3 at the Tokyo Olympics, but this will be the first Olympic participation in 5v5. Diana Taurasi is poised to become the veteran of this group, aiming for her sixth consecutive gold medal.
“When we invite people to USA Basketball training camp, it's sometimes with an eye toward the future,” Women's National Team Chairwoman Jennifer Rizzotti said during the February camp. “When Aliyah Boston went to her first minicamp, when Brianna Stewart went to her first national team camp, when a lot of players went to camp while they were in college or just out of college. I remember coming to the Olympics, and some of us were selected to the Olympic team, and some of us weren't. I think it gives them that exposure.”
Stewart played for the senior national team at the 2014 World Cup and 2015 Pan American Games in Toronto, and made his Olympic debut at the 2016 Rio Games, several months after finishing his college career. I did. Taurasi was the youngest player on the gold medal-winning team in Athens in 2004.
“American basketball has always been a certain way of playing where you put everything you're good at aside for the betterment of the team,” Taurasi said last week. “No matter who's wearing the jersey, the style of play is the same. We try to share the ball, we try to play together, we try to play unselfishly, and the ultimate goal is to win no matter who's wearing the jersey.”
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(Photo: Mike Rowley/Getty Images)