A'ja Wilson, US women hold off France to win eighth straight Olympic basketball gold medal

A’ja Wilson delivered a standout performance with 21 points as the U.S. women’s basketball team narrowly secured their eighth consecutive Olympic gold medal with a tense 67-66 victory over France at the Paris Games on Sunday.

Throughout their incredible streak of 61 straight wins, no team had come as close to defeating the Americans as France did in this matchup. Before this game, only two of those victories had been decided by single digits.

The U.S. women’s team’s achievement of eight consecutive gold medals surpasses the previous record held by the U.S. men’s team, which won seven straight golds from 1936 to 1968. The women’s triumph came just hours after the U.S. men’s team also defeated France to claim the gold medal. This marked the first time in Olympic history that the same two teams competed in both the men’s and women’s gold medal games.

In contrast to the men’s game, which was more comfortably decided, the women’s final was intensely competitive right up to the last minute, with France narrowly missing a potential game-winning shot just inside the 3-point line.