All four WNBA players will make their Olympic debuts in Tokyo.
Four WNBA players — Chicago's Stefanie Dolson, Dallas' Allisha Gray, Las Vegas' Kelsey Plum and Seattle's Katie Lou Samuelson — will represent the USA in the inaugural women's three-on-three Olympic basketball competition at the Tokyo Games.
The three-on-three tournament will feature eight women's teams and will run from July 24 to July 28 at Aomi Urban Sports Park. The preliminary round of the tournament will take place from July 24 to July 27 followed by the quarterfinals on July 27 and the semifinals and finals on July 28.
All four players are first-time Olympians, though, each has experience playing for USA Basketball in various formats. Kara Lawson, the women's basketball coach at Duke, will coach the three-on-three team. As part of Wednesday's news, Lawson said she is thrilled for each of the four athletes.
“Their dedication these past 18 months to help position USA Basketball in Tokyo is being rewarded," Lawson said in a statement. "Now, the real work begins. I’m confident that this group will be able to put together performances that represent our standard. This will be our most challenging tournament to date, but I love the competitors that we are bringing with us.”
Lawson, a 2008 Olympic gold medalist, has served as the coach and advisor to the team since 2017, guiding USA Basketball's three-on-three teams to six gold medals across multiple competition. While three-on-three rules do not allow in-game coaching, Lawson guides the team during practices and in its preparations.
Dolson, Gray and Plum played in their first international three-on-three event in 2021.
Competition differ from the long-standing, full-court event in that three-on-three's half-court games are played outdoors in under 10 minutes, with points counted by 1s and 2s up to 21. Those three, plus Samuelson, the team won the Big Twelve International Tournament in Voiron, France prior to the 2021 FIBA three-on-three Olympic Qualifying Tournament in May, which was where the U.S. stamped their ticket to Tokyo.More Olympics Coverage
- USWNT's Olympic Roster Goes Heavy on Veteran, Championship Experience
- Clayton Murphy Returns to the Top in Thrilling 800m Olympic Trials Win
- USC Runner Isaiah Jewett Concerned With Essay After Qualifying For Olympics
- Team USA Men's Basketball Tracker: Durant, Harden Headline Stars Committed to Tokyo
Author
Hi, Its me Hafeez. A webdesigner, blogspot developer and UI/UX Designer. I am a certified Themeforest top Author and Front-End Developer. I'am business speaker, marketer, Blogger and Javascript Programmer.
0 Comments:
Post a Comment