Index – Sports – France is only half an inch away from being the biggest sensation at the Olympics

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How good the United States’ chances are in Sunday’s women’s basketball final at the Paris Olympics can be seen by the bookmakers’ odds; bookmakers predict the Americans will win by 15.5 points.

Instead, what ensued was an ugly matchup in which the defense stifled the other team’s offense. In a horrible 67-66 result, the Americans shot 33.9% to France’s 31.5%, with the winners hitting two of 12 3-point attempts and the losers hitting seven of 36. The Americans committed 19 turnovers to France’s 14.

No matter how badly the French played, the Americans played worse for long stretches, and they trailed by ten points (25-35) midway through the third quarter. From there, they turned the tables and led 63-59 with 17.4 seconds left. From here, let’s follow the events second by second.

13.5 seconds: France has two penalty kicks, Johannes makes both free throws, 63-61.
11.5 seconds left: Gabby Williams fouls Kelsey Plumb and makes both free throws, 65-61.
4.9 seconds: Gabby Williams makes a three-pointer, 65-64!
3.8 seconds: Gabby Williams fouled again, Kalia Copper made a layup, 67-64!

0.0 seconds: No more timeouts, the Frenchman passes the ball forward and again to Gabby Williams, who throws it to him from the third line, good job!

But was it a two-pointer or a three-pointer? You didn’t even have to slow down for everyone to see: Williams’ feet were on the three-point line. The French national team was half a foot away from achieving that historic feat.

However, the United States won 67-66 and became the eighth consecutive Olympic champion after Atlanta. Diana Taurasi, 42, won the Olympic championship for the sixth time, setting a world record. So he did not play a single second in the final and only a few minutes in the entire game…

Williams’ pitch at 18:55:

By the way, Taurasi, who also has an Argentine passport, was a player of Laszlo Ratgeber, won the MVP of the EuroLeague final in 2009 with Spartak Moscow, and in 2010 he played well with Fenerbahce, also coached by the Novi Sad magician.

The 193-centimeter center of the US team, A’ja Wilson, contributed 21 points, 13 rebounds and 4 blocks in the finals and was elected MVP of the Paris Olympics.

But Gabby Williams deserves a paragraph too. The 180cm tall, 27-year-old pitcher was born in Sparks, Nevada, to an American father and a French mother, which is why he can have dual citizenship. He studied at the prestigious University of Connecticut and played basketball in the NCAA under the guidance of Geno Auriemma, the best college coach in the world. She was selected by the Chicago Sky in the 2018 WNBA draft.

At the same time, he also plays in Europe, for example, he was a player of Sopron Basket from 2020 to 2022 and was selected as the MVP of the 2022 EuroLeague Final Four when he led the team to victory.

If a half-American basketball player broke the U.S. national team’s winning streak, it wouldn’t cause any sensation.

(Cover photo: Gabby Williams of France and A’Ja Wilson of the United States during the women’s gold medal match between France and the United States Photo: Elsa/Getty Images)