Basketball · 1996 · Atlanta, USA
Sixty and Oh
A US women's team, assembled and toured for a full year specifically to rebuild the program after a bronze-medal disappointment, goes undefeated and helps launch a professional league of its own.
60-0
Overall record (tour + Olympics)
USA 111-87 Brazil
Gold medal result
~32,997
Attendance, final
After a disappointing bronze medal at the 1992 Barcelona Olympics, USA Basketball took the unusual step of assembling its 1996 women's Olympic team a full year in advance and sending it on an extended exhibition tour across the United States and internationally, rather than assembling a squad only weeks before the Games.
The approach worked completely: the team went 52-0 on that pre-Olympic tour, then continued the run through the Atlanta Games themselves, finishing 8-0 and beating Brazil 111-87 in the gold medal final on 4 August 1996 in front of a crowd of nearly 33,000 at the Georgia Dome, still among the largest ever for a women's basketball game. Lisa Leslie led the final with 29 points.
The team's popularity and dominance directly contributed to the launch of the WNBA the following year, and several of its members became the new league's first stars. The 1996 team is still regarded as one of the most influential in the growth of women's basketball as a professional sport in the United States.
