Top 5 Team USA Women's Basketball players in Olympics History feat. Diana Taurasi
Team USA has been the most dominant team in women’s basketball at the Olympic Games. The nation has appeared in 11 Olympic Games and ruled nine of them, including seven straight gold medals from 1986 to 2020.
As the 2024 Paris Games inches closer, Team USA has a chance to extend its supremacy in women’s basketball. With a storied history of great players from the WNBA, the Americans have been the undisputed queens of the Olympic court.
Let's look back at some of the best players who graced the Olympic court with Team USA.
Top five Team USA Women's Basketball Players in Olympics History
Diana Taurasi
Diana Taurasi will be making history when she steps foot in the Paris Games next week, as she will compete in her sixth Olympics. Taurasi has ruled the last five Olympics, giving her the record for most Olympic titles in US basketball history.
She started competing in the 2004 Athens Olympics, playing as a WNBA rookie and not missing out in any Olympics since.
In the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo, she moved to fourth in the all-time Olympic scoring leaders with 414 points. A mainstay for the national team, Taurasi is considered to be the greatest Team USA player in women’s basketball history.
Lisa Leslie
Lisa Leslie has been one of the most iconic bigs in women’s basketball. She has won four gold medals with Team USA and is third in the all-time Olympic scoring leaders with 488 points.
Leslie is one of two players with four Olympic gold medals, making it to four consecutive Olympic Games from 1996 to 2008. She was inducted to the U.S Olympic Hall of Fame in 2019.
Leslie is renowned to be the first player to dunk in the WNBA in 1997. She's a three-time WNBA MVP and two-time champion.
Tamika Catchings
Tamika Catchings has won the gold medal in every Olympic Games she participated. She played in four Olympics from 2004 to 2016, performing as one of the key players for Team USA.
Catchings is considered to be one of the best two-way players in women’s basketball. Aside from four Olympic gold medals, she has won five WNBA Defensive Player of the Year awards.
Sheryl Swoopes
Sheryl Swoopes has won three Olympic gold medals with Team USA as one of the team’s most prolific scorers. She first represented Team USA in 1996 before playing her last Olympics in 2004.
Swoopes is eighth in the all-time Olympic scoring list with 284 points. She's remembered as one of the focal points of Team USA and considered as one of the best players in the sport.
Sue Bird
Sue Bird is a five-time gold medalist for Team USA, starting from the 2004 Olympic Games to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. She's considered one of the best Team USA players in history after playing for the national team for over 20 years.
Bird carried the U.S flag in the last Olympics to honor the impact she brought to the sport in her long and storied career.