You may have thought the Minnesota Lynx trio of Sylvia Fowles, Napheesa Collier, and Cheryl Reeve already had full trophy cases, but they are going to have to clear some space for yet another accolade following the Tokyo Olympics. Fowles, Collier, Reeve, and the rest of the U.S. women’s basketball team claimed gold in Tokyo on Saturday night, taking down Japan 90-75 to come away with the top prize while finishing the games with a 6-0 record.
“People understood their roles and didn’t take things personal. We had to put a lot of egos to the side once we stepped into this thing,” Fowles said after the win. “We knew we had one goal, and that was to win this Olympics. I think everybody handled themselves well. Everybody put whatever they had to put to the side and just focus on Team USA, and I think we did that well.”
Along with the win that resulted in the Americans standing atop the podium again, Team USA recorded its seventh-straight Olympic gold medal and saw its Olympic winning streak extend to 55 consecutive victories.
“You saw us really come together and we worked really hard trying to work on our chemistry and coming together as much as we could,” Collier said. “I’m just so proud of this team and everything we were able to accomplish.”
Fowles, Collier, and Reeve have had endless success in Olympic competition and elsewhere throughout their careers. This gold-medal finish was just the latest accomplishment for the trio to add to their already impressive resumΓ©s.
Adding To Their Trophy Cases
The USA women’s basketball team featured a handful of historic storylines, including Diana Taurasi and Sue Bird winning an impressive fifth Olympic gold medal each, and the team extending their winning streak while grabbing the 10th medal in history (eight gold, one silver, one bronze).
The Lynx have been a major part of that success, and Fowles, Reeve, and Collier have played significant roles.
Fowles claimed her fourth Olympic gold medal; if she plays in the 2024 Paris games, she would likely join Taurasi and Bird as the only basketball players to have won five.
Reeve takes home her second gold medal as an assistant coach with Team USA, having also served as an assistant on the 2016 gold medal team. Collier, the youngest competitor on the 12-player roster in Tokyo, secured her first gold medal at age 24.
This list is only counting medals won with the USA women’s basketball team. If we tried to tally all of the awards the trio has won over the years, this article would have to evolve into a book.
“It’s such an unbelievable experience,” Collier said after Saturday’s win. “I’m on a high right now.”
This latest medal brought home by the Lynx trio as part of Team USA only adds to their trophy cases, but there’s good reason to believe it won’t be the last medal claimed by them in Olympic competition.
The Trio’s Future With Team USA
Minnesota and the Lynx specifically have had a strong history of representation given Team USA, and that will likely be the case once again in 2024 in Paris.
The trio of Fowles, Collier, and Reeve could once again be part of Team USA in an attempt to make it eight straight gold medals in 2024. In the next Olympics β just three years awayβ Fowles would be 38 years old and in her 17th season in the WNBA. Collier would be 27 years old and in her sixth season in the league. Assuming sheβs still with Minnesota, Reeve would be in the midst of her 15th season as head coach of the Lynx.
“Absolutely,” Collier said when asked if she would like to be a part of another Olympic team in the future. “I hope to be here for many Olympics to come.”
Although Fowles, Collier, and Reeve might not have played the same significant roles on Team USA in Tokyo as we’ve seen from the Minnesota representatives in past Olympics, the Lynx trio was still selected to represent their country and helped bring home yet another gold medal. Now they just need to find some space in those trophy cases.
