NEW YORK — While Tamika Catchings, Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi make a run for their fourth consecutive Olympic gold medals, Team USA has some new faces on its 12-player roster for Rio, which USA Basketball announced Wednesday.
Chicago Sky star Elena Delle Donne, two-time WNBA Defensive Player of the Year Brittney Griner and 2016 No. 1 WNBA draft pick Breanna Stewart will make their Olympic debuts this summer. Minnesota Lynx players Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles will compete for their third Olympic golds.
“I think it’s going to be great,” Catchings said of the first-time Olympians at the U.S. Olympic Committee's 100 Day Countdown event Wednesday. “You look at the talent they have individually — Elena as the (WNBA) MVP, Brittney Griner (as a) rookie, Breanna Stewart coming off such an amazing collegiate career and looking at the future of what she’ll bring to USA Basketball — I’m just excited because they’re such great people.”
Players on the roster were chosen by the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Player Selection Committee, chaired by Carol Callan.
“I’m thrilled (to be named to the team),” Delle Donne said. “This has been unreal, and now that it’s finally been announced, it’s finally so real and it’s been fun experiencing this with my teammates.”
Looking to continue its international dominance, the U.S. team hopes to extend its Olympic gold medal streak to six and will open its Olympic competition against Senegal.
Coached by Geno Auriemma — the UConn women’s basketball coach who recently led the Huskies to their 11th NCAA Championship — the team enters the Olympics on a 41-game winning streak dating back to the bronze-medal game in 1992 in Barcelona. Auriemma has a 23-0 record with the national team, which includes victories at the 2012 London Olympics and the 2010 and 2014 FIBA World Championships.
Five team members played under Auriemma at UConn, but he said his experiences with them now is much different than when they were in college because they’re not the same players anymore, with the exception of Stewart.
“The fact that we have very little preparation relative to the rest of the world, (coaching them abroad) was a little bit of a help for me,” he said Wednesday via teleconference. “But this time around, I think what’s more important is the fact with Sue, Diana, Tina Charles, Maya Moore, the fact that I coached them in the 2010 world championships and the 2012 Olympics, I think that experience of being with them during that time of their lives is more significant than the time they spent at Connecticut with me.”
The dozen players named were narrowed down from a list of 25 finalists, who were announced in January.
“We have that pool of 25, and you could probably literally pull 12 out of a hat, send them to the Olympics, and they would have a chance to win a gold medal,” Bird said at the 2016 Team USA Media Summit in March. “That’s just how good our country is right now in this sport.”
To her surprise, Los Angeles Sparks star Candace Parker did not make the final cut. The 30-year-old two-time Olympic gold medalist missed the first half of the 2015 WNBA season to rest after recovering from injuries but averaged 19.4 points, 10.1 rebounds and 6.3 assists after her return.
Parker said on Twitter she was disappointed to be excluded from the Olympic team, but wished the other players good luck.
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