Tri-Captains Can Make It Four Straight Gold Medals This Summer


26 All-Star selections, six WNBA championships, two league MVP awards, and a bevy of other accolades are what the United States’ tri-captains bring to the Olympic fold. But, ahead of all their professional success, Diana Taurasi, Sue Bird, and Tamika Catchings are all three-time Olympic gold medalists.

These pillars of women’s basketball can join Teresa Edwards and Lisa Leslie as the only professional basketball players to win four gold medals if they capture gold in Rio. Each is well into their 30’s, with Catchings already set on making this season, and in turn gold medal run, her last. Taurasi and Bird, at 34 and 35 respectively, have made a habit of defying the odds throughout their career, but even they would be foolish to think that this isn’t their last shot at Olympic gold.

It’s been a laborious path to the summer of 2016 for each woman. Many thought that Taurasi’s chance for the record-tying gold was in jeopardy after racking up an abundance of minutes playing both in the WNBA and abroad while sustaining a laundry list of injuries in process, some of which would have sidelined a lesser competitor for good.

Bird also endured her share of injuries, including a knee surgery which caused her to miss the entire 2013 WNBA season. Catchings celebrated her 37th birthday on July 21st – that age alone would have been enough to dissuade most from the grind of Olympic competition.

These three women are far from typical though, proving they’re in fact they’re cut from a completely different cloth altogether.

“That’s what we’re here for. I think just going back to my first time. Dawn [Staley] said, ‘we don’t leave here without the gold.’ And that’s kind of been the mindset from the first time that I came to the fourth time,” Catchings said when asked about her goal for this summer after the United States’ second practice as a unit.  “I’m super excited about the opportunity to represent my country one last time and to be out here with some amazing players young and old, and I like being able to pass that torch on to the next generation.”

Finding a balance between passing the torch and being the foundation for it is something the tri-captains must figure out in Rio. For talents like Elena Delle Donne, Brittney Griner, and Breanna Stewart, this trip to Rio will be their first Olympic experience.

Taurasi, Bird, and Catchings are still extremely talented in their own right, but they will need everything the first-timers have to offer if they want to tie Edwards’ and Leslie’s gold medal record. In fact, their tutelage of the newcomers and even those with one gold medal to their name (Maya Moore, for instance) could be more important than their final tallies on the score sheet.

“I know my games are numbered and my years are numbered. I know that, ” Taurasi said after an exhibition win over France. “I’m a realist. I just know that every time I’m on that court, I got to give my all. It’s kind of been the way I’ve approached every day. And when I get with USA Basketball, I try to do it to the max.”

That no-nonsense attitude is the perfect example of how the trio’s years of Olympic experience can help mold the next generation of American talent. While Taurasi, Bird, and Catchings excel at different things, they’re strongest quality centers on putting the necessary time in to be great, especially when it comes to wearing the red, white, and blue.

On paper, many would think that the talent alone would be enough to carry this team to the gold medal but it’s not that easy.

“People see that streak, and they view it as dominant, which it is, but each team has its own journey, its own path through this entire experience. And contrary to what the scoreboard might tell you, it’s really not that easy,” said Bird upon the team’s arrival in Rio. “Have we been dominant, the U.S. as a whole? Absolutely, but there are no guarantees. And I’ve been on a team at the 2006 World Championship that lost. I know what that’s like.”

The magnitude of this summer for Taurasi, Catchings, and Bird is undeniable. Between them, they’ve won every award imaginable, but to win four gold medals – together, no less – that’s something legends are made of.

As the the squad begins their trek through the best women’s basketball talent on the planet, the tri-captains will carry with them backpacks full of moments, ideas, and resolutions for anything that comes the United States’ way. At the end of the ascension history awaits, and they couldn’t be more eager to get there.