Diana Taurasi Expected to Compete in Historic Sixth Olympics at 2024 Paris Games

Diana Taurasi is headed to the 2024 Paris Games.

The United States is expected to take the 41-year-old Argentine American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury, a five-time Olympic champion, for a sixth Olympics.

Diana TaurasiTaurasi will break the record for most Olympics played in the sport of basketball.

Five players, including former Taurasi teammate Sue Bird, have competed in five.

Taurasi, who will turn 42 on Tuesday, will be joined by her Mercury teammate Brittney Griner.

This will be Griner’s first time playing internationally since she was detained in a Russian prison for 10 months in 2022. She said she’ll play abroad only with USA Basketball.

Joining the pair will be Olympic veterans Breanna StewartA’ja WilsonNapheesa CollierJewell Loyd and Chelsea Gray.

Kelsey Plum and Jackie Young, who helped the U.S. win the inaugural 3×3 gold medal at the 2020 Tokyo Games in 2021, will also be on the team.

First-time Olympians are Alyssa ThomasSabrina Ionescu and Kahleah Copper.

All three played on the American team that won the World Cup in Australia in 2022.

The U.S. women have won every gold medal in women’s basketball since the 1996 Atlanta Olympics.

The U.S. team will get together to train for a few days in Phoenix in July. Then it’s off to London for an exhibition game against Germany before heading to France.

The Americans will play Japan, Belgium and Germany in pool play at the Olympics.

The U.S. team will be coached by longtime Minnesota Lynx coach Cheryl Reeve, who has extensive USA Basketball experience.

Reeve, like former Olympic coaches, was allowed to give feedback on team makeup but was not part of the group that picked players.

Diana Taurasi Headlining USA Basketball’s Upcoming Exhibitions Against College Teams

Diana Taurasi is ready to play ‘ball…

The 41-year-old Argentine American professional basketball player for the Phoenix Mercury, considered to be one of the greatest players in WNBA history, and Brittney Griner will headline USA Basketball’s roster for its upcoming exhibitions against college teams as well as November training camp.

Diana TaurasiUSA Basketball is eyeing its eighth consecutive gold medal at the 2024 Paris Games next summer.

The exhibitions — against Tennessee on November 5 (SEC Network/ESPN App, 6:00 pm ET) and Duke on November 12 (ACC Network Extra/ESPN App, noon ET) — and training camp (November 7-9) are held in preparation for the Games and to evaluate the program’s player pool.

The U.S. will also participate in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament in February before holding another training camp at the Final Four. The team is coached by the Minnesota Lynx‘s Cheryl Reeve, with Mike Thibault and Curt Miller serving as assistants.

Griner and Taurasi, who turned 41 in June and is a five-time Olympic gold medalist, will join Kahleah CopperAllisha GrayRhyne HowardSabrina Ionescu and Azura Stevens on the roster for both college exhibitions.

It will be the first USA Basketball competition for Griner, a two-time Olympian, since her nearly nine-month detainment in Russia last year.

WNBA Rookie of the Year Aliyah BostonAriel AtkinsBetnijah Laney and Jackie Young will suit up in the exhibition vs. Tennessee, while Dearica HambyNatasha Howard, Arike Ogunbowale and Kelsey Plum are on the roster in place of those four for the Duke matchup.

Young and Plum recently won the 2023 WNBA title with the Las Vegas Aces.

Two-time Olympian Angel McCoughtry will join the group at training camp in Atlanta.

Bill Richardson to Travel to Russia for Talks to Free Detained WNBA Star Brittney Griner

Bill Richardson is hoping to help free Brittney Griner.

The 74-year-old Mexican-American politician and former New Mexico governor is planning to travel to Russia for talks aimed at finding a deal to free the detained WNBA star, according to ABC News.

Bill Richardson,He’s expected to go to Moscow in the next couple of weeks, the source said.

The former U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, Richardson has a long history of working to free Americans wrongfully detained overseas. He most recently played a role in a prisoner exchange that saw Russia release former U.S. Marine Trevor Reed after nearly two and a half years in captivity.

Richardson is currently representing the Griner family, as well as the family of Paul Whelan, another former Marine held by Russia for three and a half years.

Griner has been in detention in Russia since mid-February, when she was stopped at Moscow’s Sheremetyevo International Airport and accused of having vape cartridges containing hashish oil in her luggage. Griner pleaded guilty to bringing hashish oil into Russia earlier this week, telling a judge that she had done so “inadvertently” while asking the court for mercy.

ESPN sources say the guilty plea was a strategy to help facilitate a prisoner swap that could bring Griner home, and it also was recognition that there was no way she was going to be acquitted. Griner faces up to 10 years in prison if convicted of large-scale transportation of drugs.

The State Department issued a statement on Thursday saying it continues to work for Griner’s release. Asked to comment on Richardson’s potential visit, the White House National Security Council told ABC it was in contact with Richardson and valued his efforts, but declined to say more.

Richardson does not represent the White House. In Reed’s case, he approached Russia’s government and the Biden administration separately to try to feel out what both sides might accept as any possible deal. He then relayed what he had heard back to both sides.

Griner’s wife, Cherelle Griner, said she had requested the Richardson team’s help and would support a trip if it took place.

“We asked the Richardson Center to help and I’m encouraged that he might be going,” Cherelle Griner said in a statement to ABC through Griner’s agent Lindsay Colas.

Diana Taurasi Becomes First Latinx Basketball Player with Five Olympic Gold Medals

2020 Tokyo Games

Diana Taurasi is one of America’s Golden girls…

The 39-year-old Argentinian American professional basketball player and teammate Sue Bird have set a new Olympic record, alongside s the basketball players, men or women, with five gold medals.

Diana Taurasi & Team USA

Taurasi, Bird and their Team USA mates defeated Japan 90-75 in the women’s basketball final at Saitama Super Arena at the 2020 Tokyo Games, clinching a seventh straight Olympic gold medal for the U.S.

It was their 55th consecutive Olympic win.

Diana Taurasi & Sue Bird

“It’s been a tremendous journey,” Taurasi said. “It’s 20 years of sacrifice, of putting everything else aside and just wanting to win. It’s never easy playing on this team, the pressure, but this group found a way to win, and I am just happy that this group got to enjoy it.”

That’s an impeccable tour of Athens, Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro and now Tokyo as they showed off a global desire for winning and longevity that has defined the program. Likely playing in their final game with the national team, Bird and Taurasi made the first two baskets and then symbolically handed it off to the younger generation to carry it home.

Brittney Griner capped off a memorable Olympic run with her best game in Tokyo, putting up 30 points on 14-on-18 shooting, to lead the offensive attack. It was the most points ever in a gold-medal game for an American, besting Lisa Leslie‘s record of 29. But the young star was more thrilled she helped Bird and Taurasi get their fifth.

“Anyone who knows me and knows [Taurasi] knows how much I look up to her,” Griner said. “Even on the court I am still in awe. Like, yo, I get to play with Diana Taurasi. So to be a part of this, her fifth, it means everything to me, honestly.”

But is Taurasi ready to try for number six?

“See you in Paris,” Taurasi said during an interview with NBC Olympics after the gold medal game.

Taurasi then walked away from the interview, leaving the NBC crew to ponder if they were breaking news just after the big win.

Taurasi & Team USA Win Gold in Women’s Basketball at the 2016 Rio Games

2016 Rio Games

Diana Taurasi is still golden…

The 34-year-old half-Argentinean American basketball player and Team USA defeated Spain in the gold medal game Saturday, 101-72, to give the US its sixth consecutive Olympic gold.

Diana Taurasi

Taurasi, who led the way with a team-high 17 points, two rebounds, three assists and two steals, is now a four-time Olympic gold medalist.

The United States is now a perfect 5-0 against Spain in Olympic play.

This was the first Olympic gold medal for Taurasi’s Phoenix Mercury teammate, Brittney Griner. The reigning WNBA MVP, Elena Delle Donne, also won her first Olympic gold.

The other Team USA star veterans Sue Bird, who sat out with a sprain knee in the semifinal win over France, and Tamika Catchings added another gold medal to their career — matching Taurasi with a fourth in Rio.

Diana Taurasi

This could be the final Olympic appearance for the three WNBA icons.

With the loss, Spain finished with the silver. Serbia won bronze after defeating France earlier Saturday. This marked the first time on the podium for the countries in women’s basketball.

The U.S. women’s basketball Olympic play win streak was improved to an unmatched 49 games.