The US Olympic women's basketball team has officially been named ahead of the Tokyo Games this summer. In a Monday-morning Today show appearance, legendary coach Dawn Staley, along with legends in their own right Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi, announced the 12-person roster. The talented group is packed with veteran players and Olympic newbies alike, and they will be aiming to win the country's seventh consecutive — and ninth overall — gold medal.
"I know you show a roster full of 12 players, there are a lot of players that aren't on this list that have helped us," Staley noted after the announcement, adding that you need a "great mix" of athletes. She stated that combining now-five-time Olympians Bird and Taurasi and other experienced players (two-time Olympian Tina Charles and 2016 Olympians Breanna Stewart and Brittney Griner, for instance) with youthful athletes is essential. "We don't want to be the team that ends that streak of gold-medal winnings," Staley said.
US Olympic Women's Basketball Team Roster For Tokyo 2021
Ariel Atkins
Sue Bird
Tina Charles
Napheesa Collier
Skylar Diggins-Smith
Sylvia Fowles
Chelsea Gray
Brittney Griner
Jewell Loyd
Breanna Stewart
Diana Taurasi
A'ja Wilson
Ahead, check out more about each player on the US Olympic women's basketball team just weeks before they fly overseas to go — and go hard — for gold.
To learn more about all the Olympic hopefuls, visit TeamUSA.org. The Tokyo Olympics begin July 23 on NBC.
Atkins was drafted seventh overall to the WNBA in 2018 after four years at the University of Texas in Austin. She has one WNBA championship title under her belt that she earned in 2019 with the Washington Mystics. This will be Atkins's first Olympic Games. You can check out her USA Basketball profile here.
Charles has won three World Cup gold medals and two Olympic gold medals. She founded the Hopey's Heart Foundation in April 2013 in honor of her aunt Maureen "Hopey" Vaz, who passed away that year of multiple organ failure. The foundation raises awareness about sudden cardiac arrest and funds the placement of automated external defibrillators in schools and other locations. Check out her USA Basketball profile here.
Griner is a two-time Wold Cup gold medalist who won the 2014 WNBA title with the Phoenix Mercury. This will be Griner's second Olympic Games. Check out her USA Basketball profile here.
In 2016, Stewart was the first overall WNBA draft pick. Later that year, she was named the WNBA rookie of the year. She is a two-time WNBA champion who competed at the Olympics for Team USA in Rio. She's engaged to Marta Xargay Casademont, a Spanish pro basketball player. Check out Stewart's USA Basketball profile here.
This will be Taurasi's fifth Olympic Games, and she's won a gold medal at every Olympics she's been to so far. She also has three gold medals from World Cups over the years and has scored the most points out of any athlete in the WNBA, surpassing Tina Thompson in 2017. Check out her USA Basketball profile here.
