The U.S. national team are the defending Olympic and World Champions in women’s basketball and are ranked No. 1 in the world. They have won gold at every summer Olympics since 1996, including an 86-50 victory against France at the 2012 London Olympics—and have been victorious in nearly every World Cup since 1998.
One of the biggest stars on this year’s American national team is Tamika Catchings, a three-time Olympic gold medalist, two-time World Championship gold medalist, and 10-time WNBA All-Star. The 37-year-old is one of the most decorated players in the WNBA and one of only nine players in history to have won a NCAA title, WNBA Championship, World Championship gold medal, and Olympic gold medal.
Women’s basketball doesn’t always get a lot of attention—either nationally or internationally. Even though the U.S. national team has won five consecutive Olympic gold medals, they still often play second fiddle to the high-profile men’s national team, which includes stars like Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant. Perhaps Catchings’ continued all-star performance at the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics will change all that.
After the preliminary matches, the American women were at the top of their group and advanced to the quarterfinals to compete against Japan–whom they crushed by over 40 points (110–64). Along with Team USA, France, Spain, and Serbia advanced to the semifinals.
On Thursday, Aug. 18 at 6:00 pm ET Team USA will take on France in the semifinals for a chance to earn a much-deserved medal.
The final games—both the bronze and gold medal matches—are set for Saturday, Aug. 20.
How to Live Stream Women’s Basketball:
NBCUniversal’s networks and digital platforms will be showing nearly 7,000 hours of programing over 19 days during the 2016 Rio Summer Olympics. NBCOlympics.com and the NBC Sports app will also live stream coverage of the Games for pay TV subscribers via TV Everywhere. You can download the NBC Sports app to your Android TV, Apple TV, Xbox or Roku or use the iOS, Android or Windows Phone apps.
You can also live stream Olympic matches from NBC here.