Women's 5x5 basketball at 2024 Paris Olympics: How it works, Team USA stars, what to know

Dominance.

That’s the most accurate word to describe the U.S. women’s basketball team at the Olympics. It is 72-3 in Olympic play, has won nine Olympic gold medals and brings a 55-game Olympic winning streak to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Featuring many of the WNBA’s best players, the U.S. is expected to win another gold this summer. If it doesn’t, one of the greatest upsets in Olympic team sports will have occurred.

The Olympic women’s 5x5 basketball event begins July 28 in Lille, France at Pierre Mauroy Stadium and concludes with the gold-medal and bronze-medal games Aug. 11 in Paris at Bercy Arena.

When did 5x5 women’s basketball become an Olympic sport?

The women’s 5x5 event debuted in 1976, and the U.S. has dominated, winning nine gold medals – including seven consecutive starting with the 1996 Atlanta Olympics – one silver and one bronze. The U.S. did not participate in the 1980 Moscow Olympics. The Soviet Union won gold at the 1976 Montreal Games and in 1980, and the Unified Team (made up of former Soviet republics) captured gold at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics.

How does Olympic women’s 5x5 work?

The women’s Olympic 5x5 event consists of 12 teams divided into three four-team groups. Each team plays one game against the other three teams in the group stage, and the top two teams in each group plus two wildcards advance to the quarterfinals. In group play, a team receives two points for a victory and one point for a loss. The tiebreakers are 1) group points 2) head-to-head results 3) point differential 4) total points scored.

The Olympics use FIBA rules, though the four 10-minute quarters in each game mirrors the WNBA.

For context, the women’s and men’s FIBA 3-point line is the same distance as the WNBA 3-point line – 22 feet, 1¾ inches above the break, 21-feet, 9 inches in the corner. Five personal fouls result in a disqualification in FIBA Olympic rules, compared to six in the WNBA.

Who are the top Team USA athletes in women’s 5x5 basketball?

The U.S. roster is loaded (Brittney Griner, A’ja Wilson, Jewell Loyd, Breanna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu, Diana Taurasi among others), but it doesn't not include WNBA rookie star Caitlin Clark, who was left off the 12-player roster.

Taurasi, 42, is playing for her sixth gold medal – winning her first in the 2004 Athens Games – and is currently tied with former U.S. and UConn teammate Sue Bird for most in Olympic history. Taurasi is one of the game’s all-time greats and the No. 2 scorer (414 points) in U.S. Olympic history with a chance to pass Lisa Leslie (488) for No. 1.

Griner, who won Olympic gold at the 2016 and 2020 Games, is expected to go overseas for the first time since she was released from a Russian prison following a drug smuggling conviction. Stewart, a two-time WNBA MVP, two-time league champion and two-time Finals MVP, has won two gold medals.

What's the international landscape in Olympic women’s 5x5 basketball?

In the past three decades, Australia has medaled five times (bronze in 1996, silver in 2000, 2004, 2008 and bronze in 2012) and France medaled in 2020 (bronze) and 2012 (silver). With the Olympics in Paris, it is huge event for France’s women’s team. Serbia won bronze in 2016 and lost in the bronze-medal game in 2020.

China, which hasn’t won a medal in women’s basketball since 1992, is ranked No. 2 in the world by FIBA, Australia No. 3, Spain No. 4, Canada No. 5, Belgium No. 6 and France No. 7.

Australia’s Ezi Magbegor and Lauren Jackson, Belgium’s Emma Meesseman, Canada’s Kia Nurse and Germany’s Satou Sabally are among the prominent international players expected to compete. Jackson is the all-time leading scorer in Olympic women's basketball history with 575 points.

This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Women's basketball at Paris Olympics: How it works, what to know