Paris Olympics 2024: Will USA beat host France in the men's and women's gold-medal games?

by Henry Liao

In beating Australia, 85-64, in the semifinals, the American women’s team registered their 60th consecutive victory dating back to the 1992 Barcelona Olympics (bronze medal).

The US women’s team seeks its eighth consecutive gold medal when it takes on France tomorrow at 9:30 p.m. Manila time. The French gales defeated Belgium, 81-75, during their semifinal encounter.

LeBron James, Stephen Curry and Kevin Durant of USA Basketball [photo credit: USA Basketball Instagram]

The women’s basketball event was introduced in the 1976 Montreal Olympics.

Meanwhile the same countries, US and France, clash for the men’s gold medal tomorrow morning (3:30 a.m.) Manila time.

The all-NBA Stars and Stripes squad will be going for a fifth straight gold amid a hostile home crowd that will gleefully boo Joel Embiid, a native of Ben Mbala’s Cameroon who acquired French citizenship and then took US citizenship following the birth of his son in the Land of the Free and Brave. He later chose to play for Team USA in the Paris Olympics and that’s where the booing has come throughout the games.

The US is a 16.5-point favorite to beat the host country. The two countries also faced each other in the gold-medal game during the 2021 Tokyo Olympics. The Americans got their revenge after losing to Les Bleus in an preliminary-round contest.

The bronze-medal games between 2023 FIBA World Cup champion Germany and Serbia will be held 5:00 p.m. today. The two teams clashed in the finals of the FIBA World Cup (formerly called World Basketball Championship until 2014) in Manila.

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Henry Liao

Columnist at Sports Bytes PH

Henry has been into NBA chronicling since 1968 during his younger days at Xavier. He spent his grade school and high school years (1962-72) at Xavier School and then attended De La Salle Taft in college.