The U.S. Women’s National Team was chasing not just basketball history, but Olympic history at the Games in Rio this month.

By winning the gold medal the team became just third ever to capture at least six straight golds in a traditional team sport, joining the USA men’s basketball team with seven from 1936-68 and the India men’s field hockey team with six from 1928-56.

With such unprecedented success, here’s What They’re Saying about some of the 26 WNBA players competing at the Olympics:

NBC Sports: The Genesis Of U.S. Women’s Olympic Basketball Domination

Think about this for a moment: Forty years ago, the United States Olympic Committee did not even expect the women’s basketball team to QUALIFY for the Games. When they won the qualifying tournament, there was a mad effort just to get the team accommodations in Montreal.

That was the first Olympic women’s basketball tournament, forty years ago, and the United States played in the first game, against Japan.

The headline in one American newspaper after that game: “Japan Downs United States Gal Cagers.”

ESPN: U.S. Women Set Gold Bar Even Higher; They’re Not Going Anywhere’

They kept hearing they’ve been routing everyone because their competition is getting worse, and they kept politely trying to tell us we have it all wrong.

“It’s a little bit disrespectful, really,” said Diana Taurasi, one of the stars of the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team. And she’s right. The lazy take is the American team met little to no resistance on the way to its sixth straight gold medal Saturday, when it steamrolled Spain 101-72, the same way it flattened everyone else it played in this eight-game tournament.

Washington Post: U.S. Women’s Basketball Team Is Unmatchable, On The Court And At These Games

What must it be like to compete against these women, the dozen who make up the U.S. basketball team? They are tall and strong, quick and agile, skilled and fierce. These Rio Olympics have been defined, understandably, by Katie Ledecky and Simone Biles, by Usain Bolt and Michael Phelps. The truth: No athletes here are more dominant and peerless than the American women who play basketball.

“I’m in awe,” guard Seimone Augustus said, “all the time when I look around — at everyone.”

LA Times: U.S. Women’s Basketball Team Isn’t Too Good For Its Own Good, It’s Simply The Best Ever

Boring? Since when is nearly two hours of pure athletic destruction boring?

Bad for basketball? How can 20 years’ worth of consecutive victories on the world’s biggest stage be bad for basketball?

One of the most consistently dominant teams in the annals of the Olympics stepped on a Rio basketball floor Saturday in front of empty seats, feigned yawns and misguided perceptions.

USA Today: Winning Big Is Nothing New For Geno Auriemma

The USAB Women have been dominating proceedings in Rio. That’s nothing new for Geno Auriemma.

“What he brings that is unique and special to this experience is a mentality that as WNBA players, we don’t necessarily have because we don’t live in the same world which is: He’s on teams that are great all the time,” three-time gold U.S. medalist Sue Bird said.

AZ Central: USAB Women Threatening To Rewrite Record Books In Rio

A gold medal for the U.S. Women’s National team would put U.S. Women’s basketball in rarefied air, as one of only three group sports programs to win six straight gold medals.

“This has been so much fun to be a part of this incredible team,” Delle Donne said. “Everyone uplifts one other.  Someone new steps up when we need them the most. And it’s just been a blast so far.”

USA Today: Center Tina Charles Becoming Key to Olympic Run

U.S. women’s basketball coach Geno Auriemma has a simple request for his players: Whatever it is that they do well in the WNBA and international pro leagues, he wants them to do that at the Olympics.

For center Tina Charles, that’s not a problem. Rebound, post-up and run the court.

“It’s my bread and butter. It’s what I’m known for,” Charles said.

USA Today: Dominant U.S. basketball Team Ready After Pool Play Ends

China coach Tom Maher asked the question rhetorically after the United States had demolished his squad 104-62 on Sunday in the final game of Olympic women’s basketball pool play.Could anyone, on any other national team, even make the U.S. roster?

The U.S. has been that deep and dominant en route to five consecutive gold Olympic medals, and its 2016 performances have done nothing to limit present-day expectations. Sunday’s victory was the 46th straight for the U.S. women, and it came with a remarkable statistic that revealed its widespread balance and dominance.

AZ Media: Mercury Stars Taurasi And Griner Relish Shared Olympic Experience

In talking about her dominant performance in Team USA’s victory over Serbia earlier this week, guard Diana Taurasi saw an opportunity to make a joke at her teammate Brittney Griner’s expense. “I’ve just been the beneficiary of (Griner) not being able to score in the post,” Taurasi said with a sly grin as Griner snuck in beside her after practice Thursday. “So I’ve had to do a little bit more on the perimeter.”

But Griner was quick with a response of her own.“Ask her who she wants, she’ll pick me though,” she said.

espnW: Taurasi, USA A World Apart from Competition

So it was no surprise at all really when Taurasi — the ultimate winner — seemed to take it a little personally Tuesday when Serbia, the U.S. team’s third-round opponent at the Rio Summer Olympics, had ambitions of muddying this pretty picture. Serbia actually took a one-point lead with eight minutes gone in the first quarter — a rarity against this U.S. team — only to see Taurasi answer by scoring 11 of the United States’ next 15 points.

Nine of them came on three consecutive 3-pointers that left her shoving her hands straight down each side of her shorts as if she was putting them back into imaginary holsters by the third one she made.

SB Nation: USA Women More Dominant Than Men?

The women’s team hasn’t lost a game in the Olympics since 1992, and have lost in the FIBA World Championship just twice over that span. There wasn’t a global basketball tournament in that 22-year span at which the Team USA women failed to medal.

USA Today: Brittney Griner Wants A Shot At DeMarcus Cousins

Brittney Griner says she wants to play 1-on-1 against DeMarcus Cousins https://t.co/3H3aarOe57 pic.twitter.com/5hR1AfQcmH

— Bleacher Report (@BleacherReport) August 10, 2016

“I would love to just go out there and play against (Cousins),” said Griner, who has never played against NBA talent. “We talk a lot of crap to each other. I love talking to him. He’s really funny. I would love to just go out there and play against him.

“I’ve never really been around him before until now, but he’s like that big brother, just to talk smack to and who is always competitive. He’s awesome.”

AP: “Beating the United States Is Almost Impossible”

Washington Post: USABWNT Fueled By 2006 Bronze

RIO DE JANEIRO — Sue Bird is talking about losing. It’s a subject she knows very little about, and, well, that’s kind of the point: to gain entry into the soul of a winner and see what else is floating around in there.

Bird is the 35-year-old point guard of the most dominant team in basketball, men’s or women’s, and she still has a lot of crossover dribbles left. She has won two collegiate national titles, three Olympic gold medals and three world championships in her career . Oh, and a bronze at the 2006 world championships.

Bird is still seething about that bronze.

The U.S. women’s basketball team had to settle for it in Sao Paulo, Brazil, that year. It was the last time the team lost in a major competition.

USA Today: American Women Maintain Dominance in Opener

RIO DE JANEIRO – For all the focus on the Team USA men’s basketball team and its dominance in international play, the gap between the American women and their contemporaries is even greater.

They offered a merciless reminder of that reality on Sunday, breaking their own Olympic record for points scored in a single game during a 121-56 opener against Senegal at Youth Arena while stretching their Olympic winning streak to 42.

Breanna Stewart: On Cruise Ships, Traffic and Chemistry

Eight years ago, as a 14-year-old in North Syracuse, N.Y., I was glued to the TV set, watching the U.S. basketball teams — men and women — win gold in Beijing. I tried to imagine what it would be like to be an Olympian.

Now I’m starting to get the idea.

People: Delle Donne’s Opening Ceremony Diary

#ad Ready for Opening Ceremony! Thanks @Pantene for my beautiful hair! See my whole diary tomorrow on @people_style pic.twitter.com/C9aIok0ff4

— Elena Delle Donne (@De11eDonne) August 5, 2016

The Olympian is psyched to be in Rio, but sad to leave her beloved Great Dane Wrigley behind. “One of my friends from Delaware flew in to babysit him for me while I’m in Rio since I knew he’d be a mess without me for a month, so he really needs to stay in his element.”

Excelle Sports: Gold Standard for Backcourts

There are some duos in professional sports who are forever linked. Shaquille O’Neal and Kobe Bryant. Venus and Serena Williams. Michael Jordan and Scottie Pippen. Misty-May Treanor and Kerri Walsh Jennings. Lou Gehrig and Babe Ruth. These are the athletes whose names are synonymous with one another, eternally carved out side-by-side in the annals of sports history.

For women’s basketball, it’s Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi.

New York Times: Most Dominant American Basketball Team? The Olympic Women

Five straight gold medals, seven over all. A 41-game winning streak. A 58-3 record.

Those are a few of the statistics that sum up the United States women’s national basketball team’s dominance in Olympic competition. And for the other top teams in the world, it is a mastery they will have to overcome in their own quests for a gold medal.

“We know they’re the best, and we know that we have to put it all out there on the floor,” the Australian guard Penny Taylor said.

espnW: U.S. Olympians Learning from One Another

In fact, after the U.S. women’s basketball team beat Australia 104-89 in the Americans’ last tune-up game before the Rio de Janeiro Olympics, the sense was that the players are all eagerly learning from one another, along with a staff led by Geno Auriemma.

“One of the things he celebrated about what we were doing is how we let ourselves be coached by each other,” said Maya Moore, who had 13 points, six rebounds and six assists on Sunday. “When you have a team like that, you really can’t be stopped. Because no one’s going to take it personally. No one’s going to shut down because of their feelings being hurt. We’re just going to take it and move on to the next play.

Vogue: Meet the Star Who’s Poised to Take Olympics By Storm

By the time their daughter was standing two heads above her fellow kindergartners, Elena Delle Donne’s parents knew she was an unusual child, and were not terribly surprised when, aged ten, Elena joined a basketball team and led it to place third in the national championships. Recently voted Most Valuable Player of the Women’s National Basketball Association, Elena is currently poised to lead the U.S. women’s Olympic basketball team to collect its sixth consecutive gold in Rio. “She is a once-in-a generation type of player,” says NBA deputy commissioner Mark Tatum. “She’s a Steph Curry.”

Chicago Tribune: Delle Donne Engaged, Comes Out: ‘I’m Not At All Going to Hide Anything’

Sky forward Elena Delle Donne doesn’t feel the need to hide her sexuality anymore.

An article in Vogue magazine’s August issue states that Delle Donne is engaged to her girlfriend Amanda Clifton, and it is the first time there has been a public acknowledgement of Delle Donne’s sexual orientation.

“I’ve grown up in a family where I have the most unique sister in the world and we’ve always been taught to celebrate uniqueness,” Delle Donne said Wednesday in Rio, where she is preparing for the Olympics. “It was easy for me to be who I am and hopefully others can be who they are as well.”

Sports Illustrated: Meet Elena Delle Donne

Reigning WNBA MVP and Olympic first-timer Delle Donne has cause to smile alongside three-time gold medalists Tamika Catchings and Sue Bird. Headed by UConn coach Geno Auriemma (and featuring five former Huskies, including Bird), the team is favored to top the podium for a sixth straight Games.

Excelle Sports: The Other Dream Team – ’96 Women’s Basketball

On August 4, 1996, the U.S. team completed an undefeated “season” and earned its very own gold medals. Given their third-place finishes at the two previous international tournaments, it was critical they reestablished themselves as the world’s elite. Among the 33,000 in attendance at the gold-medal game was Val Ackerman, who’d been named the president of a new women’s professional basketball league, the WNBA. As she sat with NBA colleagues watching “one of the best basketball games you could ever see,” she thought, What a platform to be springing from.

Star Tribune: Four Lynx Players Take Winning Formula to Rio

Lynx basketball is sending four current players — Maya Moore, Lindsay Whalen, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles — and coach Cheryl Reeve, plus a player under team control who will compete for Australia, to Rio for the 2016 Olympics to support another dynastic team: U.S. women’s basketball.

Lynx basketball has won three of the last five WNBA championships, and the four Olympians already have a combined six gold medals.

Yahoo! Sports: Australia’s Taylor Set to Retire After WNBA Season

NEW YORK (AP) — Australian star Penny Taylor is calling it a career.

The 35-year-old told The Associated Press that she would retire from playing basketball at the end of the WNBA season. She helped lead the Phoenix Mercury to three WNBA titles and guided Australia to a world championship in 2006.

”My focus is on the Olympics, but definitely it’s my last year,” Taylor said. ”Worked really hard to get back and still be good. I want to go out on a good note. My health is something I really had to work hard at, and to be fit and stay out on the floor, I’ve done that really well. For me, it’s the right time.”

Newsday: Bird Looks to Join Elite Company with Fourth Gold

Bird, Diana Taurasi and Tamika Catchings have been mainstays on the team for 16 years and will be playing for a rare fourth consecutive gold medal. The only other women’s basketball players to have won four are Lisa Leslie (1996-2008) and Teresa Edwards (1984-2000).

IndyStar: Catchings Hopes to Win — and Enjoy — Olympics

RIO DE JANEIRO — In Athens, Beijing and London, she had an international basketball experience. She didn’t have an Olympic experience.

This time, Tamika Catchings is changing it up. She is 37, playing her last season and is not passing this way again.

She said the U.S. team is as focused as ever on winning a gold medal, extending a streak to six in a row. But it is the Olympic Games, right? Catchings, who celebrates humanity on a daily basis, is doing it in Rio.