Taurasi Competing for a Record-Setting Sixth Olympic Gold Medal Griner Looks to Bring Home a Third Olympic Gold Medal Copper to Make Her Olympic Debut
PHOENIX – Five-time Olympic gold medalist Diana Taurasi, two-time Olympic gold medalist Brittney Griner and Kahleah Copper, who will make her Olympic debut, were named to the USA Basketball Women’s National Team ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, USA Basketball announced today. The Olympic Games Paris 2024 is set to run from July 26-Aug. 11, 2024.
Taurasi will make a USA Olympic Basketball record sixth appearance in Paris and look to become the first player in Olympic basketball history, women’s or men’s, to win six gold medals, breaking a tie with Sue Bird. Taurasi, who won her first gold medal with Team USA at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, has played more games than any other women’s player in USA Basketball Olympic history (38) and is second in points scored (414), trailing only Lisa Leslie (488).
Griner is one of only three active players on Team USA with multiple Olympic gold medals – Taurasi (5) and Breanna Stewart (2) – after bringing home gold in Tokyo (2020) and Rio de Janeiro (2016). In the 2020 Olympic Games, Griner started all six games and averaged a team-best 16.5 points (tied with A’ja Wilson) and 7.2 rebounds per game. She scored 30 points in the gold medal game against Japan, joining Lisa Leslie as the only USA Women’s National Team members to score 30 points in an Olympic game.
The 2024 Summer Games will be Copper’s first Olympics appearance. She won a gold medal with USA Basketball at the 2022 FIBA World Cup and participated in the 2024 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Belgium in February. A three-time All-Star and 2021 WNBA Champion and Finals MVP, Copper is having a career year with the Mercury, averaging 24.0 points and 2.9 made threes per game, which both rank third in the league. Just twelve games into the 2024 season, Copper has scored 30 or more points in a league-best four games and made history by becoming the first player in WNBA history to record back-to-back 37-plus point games in May.
The USA Women’s National Team is seeking their eighth straight, and 10th overall, Olympic gold medal in Paris, while the 2024 Olympics marks the second consecutive Summer Games that the Mercury has featured three players on Team USA (Taurasi, Griner and Skylar Diggins-Smith – 2020 Olympic Tokyo Games). Phoenix Suns guard Devin Booker and forward Kevin Durant will be in Paris as part of the USA Basketball Men’s National Team, joining the Mercury trio to mark the first time one city’s NBA and WNBA teams have combined for at least five players named to the USA Basketball national teams at a single Olympic Games.
The USA Women’s National Team will hold training camp in Phoenix before competing against the WNBA All-Stars in the league’s All-Star Game on Saturday, July 20 at 5:30 p.m. PT (ABC). A full 2024 USA Basketball Women’s National Team roster and schedule can be found here.