Diana Taurasi and Team USA will face long-time rival Australia in the Olympic semifinals.
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PARIS (AP) – The United States and Australia are ready for the next chapter of their international rivalry in women’s basketball at the Olympic Games.
The teams will play in the semifinals on Friday for a place in Sunday’s gold medal match. In the other match, France will face Belgium.
It was a one-sided affair between the Americans and Australians. The Opals have never beaten the USA in Olympic competition, losing in the gold medal game in 2000, 2004 and 2008. The Australians also lost to the USA in the semifinals of the 1996 and 2012 Olympics.
The USA and Australia met in the quarterfinals at the 2021 Olympic Games in Tokyo and once again the Americans emerged victorious.
Diana Taurasi, who was involved in four of the USA’s victories against the Australians, is concerned about possible conflicts of interest in her home country as she is married to former Australian basketball player Penny Taylor.
“It’s going to be a home game… I hope she wants Australia to win. She brought this team a world championship. She was MVP of the world,” Taurasi told The Associated Press. “You know, she admires being Australian and this team so much. And… having been around for so, so long… we know how tough this game is going to be. It’s never easy.”
Yesterday was fun 😁
The #USABWNT goes into the semifinals tomorrow at 11:30am ET against 🇦🇺 Australia and has its sights set on the final!
📺 Peacock, USA network pic.twitter.com/H3oKpwHQdk
— WNBA (@WNBA) 8 August 2024
Despite the lack of success, the Australians are not afraid of the Americans, as most of the Opals players play with and against US players in the WNBA.
“I think the fact that we have so many players that know them and have played with them and against them helps,” Australian guard Sami Whitcomb said after the Opals beat Serbia in the quarterfinals on Wednesday. “Obviously they’re phenomenal players, but I really like our group as well. I like how we compete. I think you can only do your best and do your best on the day and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Like Taurasi, Lauren Jackson was involved in many of these showdowns between Australia and the USA, including the infamous incident with Lisa Leslie in the 2000 gold medal match in Sydney, when the Australian ripped out the US star’s hair extensions.
Jackson, 43, hasn’t contributed much at these Olympics, but the fact that she’s still playing is nothing short of a miracle after injury forced her career to end in 2016.
The other semifinal pits host France against Belgium, a newcomer to the medal round. The teams have drawn the best crowds during the tournament, with Belgium consistently drawing nearly 25,000 fans in the preliminary round, which was played in Lille, France, about 20 miles from the country’s border.
The Belgian Cats have been on the rise internationally recently thanks to Emma Meesseman. They finished seventh at the Tokyo Games, fifth at the World Championships a year later and won the EuroBasket championship last year. Now they have a chance to win the country’s first Olympic medal in basketball.
“People talk about us, people support us. Wherever we go, people know us,” said Meesseman. “So I’m sure that inspires a lot of people, whether they play sports or not. We’re just following a dream and showing that it’s possible.”
Belgium coach Rachid Meziane is from France and was excited about the chance to play against his home country in front of a full crowd.
“Maybe it can be something great to play against the French in this hall,” he said.
France recovered from its only loss of the tournament to beat Germany in the quarterfinals. Marine Johannes played a great game and the French team defended the Germans hard.
They were looking forward to the chance to play in front of their home crowd again and possibly win a medal with a win.
“Yes, we can breathe a sigh of relief. There is always a bit of stress, but the fact that we didn’t collapse under it feels great,” said French star Gabby Williams. “But now we can breathe a bit easier. Not too much. But it feels great to get the win.”
