Surprise. It wasn’t the Dream Team that appeared on the cover of the Sports Illustrated Olympics Special. No more than Michael Jackson or Carl Lewis. Nor a gymnast. They are five players of the American women’s basketball team and their coach. That, nobody expected.
This is the 8th chapter of a retrospective on the events, teams and players who have marked the history of the Olympic Games. Read also :
Olympics Berlin’36: The manager, the inventor and the dictator.
Helsinki’52, Melbourne’56, Rome’60: Interview with Jean-Paul Beugnot.
Mexico’68: Spencer Haywood, a 20-year-old prodigy
Munich’72: Three seconds, an eternity
Los Angeles’84: Bobby Knight, the General
Seoul’88: The end of an era
Barcelona’92: Magical Moments
The US Women’s Olympic Basketball Team, as it is called in the USA, was a major attraction of these Olympic Games. She drew the record and absolutely astounding figure of 30,000 spectators at every appearance at the Georgia Dome. Some fans wore a T-shirt with the cartoons of the twelve players on it. Everyone howled with contentment at each victorious action of their troops. Bill and Harry Clinton did not fail to visit their locker room on July 25 to congratulate them on their victory over Zaire. Finally, the organizers had scheduled the final of the tournament just before the closing ceremony and it was served at a peak listening hour, and in its entirety, to the spectators of NBC. A budget of 16 million Francs was necessary to launch the largest operation ever seen on this planet for a female sports team. And more than a spontaneous outburst, the “Women’s Dream Team” effect was expertly orchestrated by the marketing arm of USA basketball, the NBA itself. We made brands like Champion, Nike, Kraft and even Tampax spit in the bassinet. We ran a promotion campaign roughly equal to that of the guys’ Dream Team.
Take back power …
But first of all, bringing together all of the best female players in the country for these Atlanta games was driven by a terrible urge: to take back power. The USA were beaten in the semi-finals, both in Barcelona and in the world championship in Australia, in 1994.
So USA Basketball has gone to great lengths. We called in experienced players, ten of whom have already played abroad. This is how, for example, Jennifer Azzi went through VA-Orchies, and Teresa Edwards and Dawn Staley through Tarbes. We were convinced of the merits
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