Getty Hailey Van Lith of Team USA at the Olympics
The Paris Olympics are underway and the American Women took the court today against Germany in the 3×3 format for basketball. The United States Women’s 3×3 Olympic Basketball team dropped their opening pool play match to Germany on July 30.
The defending champions dropped the match to Germany 17-13. Hailey Van Lith led the way for the Team USA women with six points. She delivered an encouraging message after the loss.
“It’s not a one-game tournament. It’s a 10- or 11-game tournament,” Van Lith said according to Yahoo Sports’ Jeff Eisenberg. “We have a lot of games left. We’re going to be fine.”
The United States women’s 3×3 basketball team won a gold medal in the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo.
Olympic 3×3 Basketball Format
The 3×3 basketball made its Olympics debut in 2020. The format consists of eight teams that qualify before the official games. Along with the United States, Germany, Azerbaijan, Australia, Spain, France, Canada and China will be competing.
The games are played with a 10-minute clock. However, the game ends if either team reaches 21 points before the clock hits zero. If the game is tied, overtime will be payed where the first team to score two points will win. The game is played by ones and twos as opposed to twos and threes like the 5×5 format.
For both men and women, the tournament will start off with pool play. Pool play is a round-robin format meaning each team will play each other. After each team has played seven games the bottom two records will be eliminated from medal contention.
The top two teams will automatically qualify for the semifinals while the other four teams will play a play in bracket to determine the final two semifinal teams.
Hailey Van Lith at the Olympics
Van Lith played basketball at Louisiana State University alongside Angel Reese last season. However, she transferred to Texas Christian University following the conclusion of the college basketball season.
Van Lith has made a name for herself on the international stage. Van Lith is the only college basketball player representing Team USA at the Olympics in Paris. She has already won five gold medals representing the United States, with two of them coming in the 3×3 format.
“Representing (the) USA is so special,” Van Lith told KING 5’s Chris Egan. “Just because of what Team USA means. What our country means in general and usually in the sports world, every team we play, they want to be us, they want to be USA. They want the opportunities we get. We’re so fortunate to be able to, as women in sport, to be able to play freely and invest time into it and not be discriminated against because we’re women trying to play sports.”
She won gold at the 2023 FIBA 3×3 World Cup and the 2019 FIBA 3×3 Under-18 World Cup. The United States is going for consecutive gold medals in Olympic women’s 3×3 basketball.
In 2020, the United States also lost one match in pool play. However, it was not the opener. They dropped a game final pool play game to Japan that year,
Van Lith shot five-for-nine in the game against Germany en route to leading the game in scoring. She also had three rebounds. However, her two turnovers led the team as well.
The next match for the USA women’s 3×3 team will be on July 31 when they face off against Azerbaijan.