Mighty Team USA set sights on defending women's 3x3 Olympic gold medal

COLORADO (USA) - With a mixture of WNBA talent and 3x3 experience,  powerhouse USA will be highly confident of defending their gold medal at the Paris Olympics. 

Let's take a closer look at favorite USA, who are also the reigning World Cup champion. 

USA

Ranking: 2nd

Previous Olympic Appearances: 2021 (Gold) 

Squad: Cierra Burdick, Dearica Hamby, Rhyne Howard, Hailey Van Lith 

Key Player: Hailey Van Lith 

The 22-year-old phenom is a walking W having played a huge part in USA's World Cup triumph last year.  

HVL gets the engine started for USA and she also is often trusted when on the game is on the line because her sweet lefty j is so reliable.

Van Lith is a mentally tough player, which shouldn't come as a surprise because she was once mentored by Kobe. 

The hugely popular college star has built up plenty of experience on the half-court over the years and her 3x3 IQ will be needed on the biggest stage of all. 

Qualification: USA directly qualified after winning the first-ever women's 3x3 Olympic gold medal in Tokyo.

Filled with WNBA players, including Las Vegas Aces star Kelsey Plum, USA recovered from a loss to host Japan in the pool phase to defeat Russian Olympic Committee in a hard-fought final. 

Expectations: Like basically every other USA team playing hoops, this squad will set their sights firmly on gold. Whether it's fair or not, anything else will be deemed as an underachievement. 

It's enormous pressure for a team without the chemistry and continuity of some of their rivals. 

The red, white and blue will lean on the wealth of 3x3 experience from Van Lith and Cierra Burdick, who is an OG women's player having been part of USA's triumph at the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2014. 

They've been at the core of USA's strong form on the Women's Series, with the team having taken out the recent Quebec Stop. 

Make no mistake, no team has the talent of USA, who boast WNBA stars Rhyne Howard and Dearica Hamby.

They suffered a blow when emerging superstar Cameron Brink, who was part of USA's World Cup winning line-up last year and subsequently selected at No.2 in the WNBA draft, was ruled out after suffering a serious knee injury. 

But the towering and athletic Hamby, a teammate of Brink at Los Angeles Sparks, has lit up the WNBA this season and is in career best form. 

The 30-year-old might even be better suited to the half-court as she showed during an MVP performance in USA's victory at the FIBA 3x3 AmeriCup 2023. 

FIBA