The gap between the best and the rest became abundantly clear on Wednesday, with all four winners in the women’s 5×5 basketball quarterfinals cruising to victory by 10 or more points. Now, the table is set, and Team USA, France, Belgium and Australia are the four teams left vying for the gold medal.

Before we look at matchups and who might reach the gold medal game, let’s recap how the four semifinalists got there.

Smith leads Aussies to semis

The Opals were in charge of this contest from the jump. They had a slight edge in the opening quarter and took full control of the game in the second, outscoring Serbia 22-13.

Alanna Smith led Australia with 22 points, and Cayla George was a spark plug off the bench with 18 points. Australia has a tall task ahead of them, facing the Americans in the semifinals. Still, they’ve played as well as anyone and are in prime position for their sixth Olympic medal in women’s basketball.

Belgium advances behind bigs

Belgium defeated Spain 79-66 thanks to the combination of Emma Meesseman and Kyara Linskens. This one-two punch contributed 38 points and 17 rebounds, giving Belgium the advantage they needed to come out victorious.

Spain didn’t go down without a fight. Megan Gustafson scored 21 points and grabbed seven rebounds, both team highs for Spain. However, it wasn’t enough, as Belgium dominated the glass and the paint, forcing Spain to shoot an inefficient 35 percent from the inside. Belgium will now play the host country, France, in the semis.

Marine’s magic propels France

In case you needed a reminder, Wednesday’s quarterfinal game provided it: Marine Johannès is good at basketball. Thanks to her standout performance, France beat Germany 84-71.

Johannes was a magician on the floor, scoring 24 points on 57 percent shooting. Gabby Williams was as impactful as always, keeping the offense flowing by contributing 15 points, pulling six rebounds and dishing out five assists. It never felt like Germany posed a legitimate threat to Frances, as Les Bleues cruised to victory with the crowd on their side every step of the way.

During our preview of this quarterfinal matchup, we mentioned how vital the Sabally sisters would be to Germany’s chances. But only one had a good game, and it wasn’t Satou. Nyara Sabally cleaned up the glass like no other with 13 rebounds. She shot poorly from the field, but made her living on the free throw line, going 14-for-15 from the charity stripe. Satou never got going, as she went 2-for-10 from the field and scored just 10 points. Given the uphill battle they faced versus France, that wasn’t enough to get the job done and eliminate the host country.

New starting lineup, same winning result for Team USA

How do the best get better? By changing their starting lineup. Against Nigeria, Team USA opted to bench Diana Taurasi and start Jackie Young in her place, and the Las Vegas Aces guard did not disappoint.

She was a tyrant on defense, helped the United States pick up the pace from the jump and ended the game with 15 points on 6-for-10 shooting. Young’s inclusion was a new ripple in Team USA’s path towards the gold, but A’ja Wilson is still the most important player. Wilson led the Americans in both points and rebounds, ending the night with a double-double that featured 20 points and 11 rebounds.

Nigeria never challenged the USA, and this game wasn’t as close as the 88-74 score implies. Nigeria outscored Team USA 26-12 in a fourth quarter that essentially was all garbage time.

The semifinals will begin on Friday. Team USA will face Australia at 11:30 a.m. ET, followed by France vs. Belgium at 3 p.m. ET. The gold and bronze medal matches will take place this Sunday.

Enjoy Swish Appeal’s exclusive conversation with Jerzy Robinson (2008), the No. 1 recruit in the class of 2026 who was MVP of 2024 FIBA Under-17 Women’s Basketball World Cup for the world champion United States.

We talk about her development as a player, strong family foundations, business acumen, moving from Arizona to California and remaining a kid despite all of her accomplishments. Some highlights from the interview include:

On winning the MVP during the U17 World Cup:

I would say it’s the biggest achievement in my career so far other than the gold medal.

On lifting weights since she was nine years old:

As a little kid I didn’t really understand the advantages of it. My dad had me in the weight room and I was like, “Oh man, Dad.” But over time, when I was 11, 12, I started to see my body change. I think that’s when I really realized, especially playing with the boys, that I had a stronger base and foundation.

Advice she got from Russell Westbrook:

Having that work, work ethic and consistency is really important as a player, maybe more important than anything else, because there’s internal motivation, external motivation that comes and goes. So just staying in the lab and continuing to work on your craft.

For more, check out the whole interview, as well as some highlights of Jerzy’s play:

A special thank you to Klutch Sports Group for arranging the interview.

With the two remaining trips to the semifinals in the women’s 5×5 basketball competition on the line on Wednesday, Aug. 7, Germany will be facing the host country, France, at 12 p.m. ET (Peacock), and Team USA will take on Nigeria at 3:30 p.m. ET (USA Network).

France vs. Germany

12:00 p.m. ET; winner plays either Spain or Belgium

Les Bleues have had a successful tournament so far. They’ve gotten stellar performances from Gabby Williams, who is averaging 13.6 points, six assists and 4.6 rebounds at the Olympics. Her play, along with her teammates Marine Johannès and Marième Badiane, is a big reason why France won two of their three games in Group B.

With the French men advancing to the semifinals on Tuesday, the women could join them on Wednesday and set up a historic scenario with both attempting to advance to the gold medal games, where Team USA likely would await as the opponents.

To get there, they’ll have to go through Germany, who have looked relatively good outside of their 87-68 defeat to the United States. However, given that the Americans have won 58 games in a row, it’s hard to knock Germany for the loss. In their pair of wins, they’ve gotten the job done thanks to Satou Sabally’s play. The Dallas Wings player has bounced back from her injury, helping Germany begin these Olympics with a win over Belgium before scoring 33 points against Japan.

If she gets going against France, they’ll have a chance to upset the home team; if not, they’ll need someone like Leonie Fiebich or her younger sister Nyara Sabally (whose status is uncertain after she missed Germany’s last two games with a back injury) to play above and beyond to still have a shot at advancing.

Nigeria vs. Team USA

3:30 p.m. ET; winner plays either Australia or Serbia

What do people with power want? More power. Team USA is as big and as dominant as can be. No squad has terrorized a sport as relentlessly and repeatedly. I feel safe saying that their Olympic winning streak—which is at 58-consecutive wins and counting—will never be topped.

The rest of the world is catching up, and once they do, you’ll see the Americans losing occasionally, and the invincibility they currently demonstrate will vanish. But not today.

You know their names: A’ja Wilson, Brenna Stewart, Sabrina Ionescu and the list goes on. At these Olympics, their armor has shown signs of tenderness. The guards have noticeably struggled to dominate on the perimeter. With the physicality allowed in FIBA play, you’ve seen teams muck up the game during the opening quarters. In the end, however, the best players during this tournament are still donning the red, white and blue. With four quarters to play, that quality eventually overwhelms their opponents and results in comfortable, double-digit wins.

For Nigeria to pull off the improbable, they’ll have to play the best basketball the country has ever displayed. It is unlikely to happen, but so far, Nigeria has shocked the basketball world by reaching the quarterfinals, a feat no men’s or women’s team from Africa has ever achieved. It’s all gravy from here. Playing with house money, expect Nigeria to come out inspired and with everything they have during the opening minutes of their matchup on Wednesday.

Ezinne Kalu is a player to watch on the Nigerian side. She scored 21 points in their win against Canada in their final Group B game. The guard has led Nigeria in scoring in all three games they’ve played at the Olympics.

When the dust settled in 3×3 play on the women’s side, a new gold medal winner was crowned, with Germany defeating Spain 17-16. Team USA failed to complete their gold medal defense, but came up victorious in the bronze medal match, beating Canada 16-13.

A pair of down-to-the-wire semifinals

Monday began with the semifinal matches. First, it was Spain vs. the United States, followed by Germany vs. Canada. Spain pulled off the upset, beating Team USA 18-16 to advance to the gold medal game.

The Spaniards emerged victorious not only thanks to superior late-game execution, but also because the Americans missed free throws and committed too many fouls, which put Spain in the bonus early.

The game was even at 16 at the end of regulation, resulting in overtime play. With a 2-point shot automatically securing the result, Spain looked for the win. However, Vega Gimeno missed the shot from deep. She got her own rebound, and Sandra Ygueravide scored a 1-point basket to give Spain the lead. With Team USA having possession, they also looked for a game-clinching basket. Rhyne Howard aimed to end things with her 2-point attempt but missed wide. Ygueravide then drove baseline, and Dearica Hamby was called for the foul. The foul seemed soft, but Ygueravide hit her free throw, ending the game and ensuring a new gold medal winner would be named at the Paris Olympics.

Germany-Canada was equally as competitive, with Germany winning 16-15. Sonja Greinacher won the game on a buzzer-beating drive in the game’s closing seconds. Greinacher gave an inspired performance for Germany, scoring 11 points on 9-for-10 shooting en route to the win. Canada’s balanced attack saw three players score four points, but it wasn’t enough down the stretch to get the result.

Team USA takes the bronze

With a bronze medal on the line, Team USA and Canada gave us another entertaining game. The Americans came out on top 16-13, with Hailey Van Lith doing a lot of the heavy lifting as she scored a team-high six points.

Team USA won despite failing to convert a single 2-point shot and losing the rebounding battle, 15-13. Fouls, however, went Team USA’s way as they secured the result thanks to free throws made by Hamby and Cierra Burdick during the game’s final possessions. Team USA won gold at the Tokyo Olympics and now has a bronze medal to add to their trophy room.

Germany is golden

In the gold medal match, Germany beat Spain 17-16, with Greinacher scoring the key points that gave the Germans the advantage. Spain still had one final possession to try and even the score or take the lead, but after Gracia Alonso missed a shot to tie it, time expired and the result went Germany’s way.

Greinacher was the star for Germany throughout the game. She scored five points, including two big 2-point shots to help Deutschland taste gold in 3×3 play. While Spain is undoubtedly disappointed in this result, a silver medal and defeating the United States seems like a pretty good consolation prize.

Key takeaways

At the 2020 Olympics, the United States won gold, Russia got silver and China earned bronze. Three years later, Germany claims the gold, Spain has the silver and USA holds the bronze. Out of six medals in two Olympics, five different countries have won. That demonstrates the parity and difficulty of dominating this relatively new sport at this competitive level.

Team USA will have to retool to return to the top for the 2028 Games in Los Angeles. Germany will look to repeat, while Spain, Canada and other countries will undoubtedly emerge as contenders next cycle. Those are all things to discuss in the weeks, months and years ahead. For now, Germany can hold their head up high and claim themselves as queens of 3×3.

The women’s basketball quarterfinals at the 2024 Paris Olympics will begin this Wednesday, Aug. 7, when Serbia (Group A) takes on Australia (Group C) at 5:00 a.m. ET. Shortly thereafter, Spain (Group A) will play Belgium (Group C) at 8:30 a.m. ET. Both quarterfinal games will be streamed live via NBC Peacock.

The Olympic quarterfinals begin after a brief group (or “pool”) phase in which each team played its respective group opponents once. Team records in the pool phase determine quarterfinal seeding; of the 12 teams participating in the pool phase, eight advance to the quarterfinals, with the quarterfinal draw emphasizing that each team will play an opponent they had not already faced in pool play, according to the FIBA competition system. Given that each team only plays three games apiece in the pool phase, their records (and thus, quarterfinal seeding) may not be entirely indicative of their level of talent.

Additionally, the quarterfinals are single-elimination games, meaning that the winning teams advance to the semifinals while the losing teams are done for the rest of the Olympics. As with the rest of the Olympics as a whole, teams must bring their best, and there’s no margin for error in front of their worldwide audience.

Serbia vs. Australia

5:00 a.m. ET; winner plays either Nigeria or the United States

Australia has had one of the strongest national programs in the world since the turn of the century, but they’re coming off a disappointing performance in 2020, when they won just one game in the Tokyo Olympics and were bounced in the first round of the quarterfinals by the United States. They’ve been better thus far in Paris, and while the Aussies still don’t look quite like the powerhouses they were in the early 2000s, they’ve gotten enough contributions from veterans such as Sami Whitcomb, Tess Madgen and Cayla George to supplant young stars Ezi Magbegor, Alanna Smith and Jade Melbourne as they enter their athletic primes.

The lack of a go-to star hurt Australia in their opening loss to Nigeria, but team efforts against Canada and France later in pool play secured their ticket to the quarterfinals. Neither win was overwhelming, but Australia has proven that it can beat opponents in numerous ways and with numerous standout players; take the combo guard play of Whitcomb (19 points and 10 assists vs. Canada) for example, or the jack-of-all-trades skillset of Steph Talbot (seven points, six rebounds and five assists vs. France).

Whereas Australia is looking for a bounce-back effort from the previous Summer Olympics, Serbia will be looking to build upon what they previously accomplished. With a third-place (bronze medal) finish in Rio in 2016 and a fourth-place finish in Tokyo in 2020, Serbia’s national program is on the rise, and they’ve been impressive in Paris, too, going 2-1 in pool play with the highest cumulative point differential (+17) in Group A.

Much of that point differential comes from a massive 22-point win Serbia earned against China, and despite dropping a close game to Group A winners Spain, Serbia looks to have momentum on their side entering the quarterfinals. They have one of the competition’s top playmakers in Yvonne Anderson (13.3 points and seven assists per game) and three of their players averaged at least two steals per contest in pool play. They also allowed the fewest points per game (61.3) of any country during the competition’s initial phase.

Spain vs. Belgium

8:30 a.m. ET; winner plays either Germany or France

Judging solely by pool play record, Spain is one of the top teams remaining in the competition, entering the quarterfinals with a perfect 3-0 mark. None of their wins were blowouts—they defeated both China and Puerto Rico by one point and Serbia by eight—but they boast one of the most talented guard/big duos in Leonor Rodriguez and Megan Gustafson, who are averaging 15.7 and 17 points per game, respectively. Gustafson, in particular, has been magnificent, shooting 61.1 percent from the field while also chipping in 10 rebounds per game.

Spain will need every bit of that and more against Belgium, who may have the most misleading pool play statistics of any team in the quarterfinals. Belgium went 1-2 against Group C opponents, with losses to Germany and the United States, but remains an incredibly dangerous team when they’re rolling, as Japan learned in a 27-point drubbing that ultimately allowed them to sneak into the quarterfinals.

Taking center stage for Belgium is international superstar Emma Meesseman, who brings a wealth of skill and experience to the country’s frontcourt. Meesseman recorded perhaps the most impressive stat line of any player in pool play against Japan, racking up 30 points, 11 rebounds, four assists and five blocks; she was joined in double-figure scoring by Elise Ramette, Antonia Delaere and Maxuella Lisowa-Mbaka in a dominant Belgian victory.

Needless to say, it’s the best Belgium has ever looked at the Olympics, having only qualified for the competition once before in 2020. Spain, on the other hand, has much more history on their side, though one could also argue that they’ll be under pressure to return to the form that earned them a silver medal in the 2016 Rio Olympics after underachieving in Tokyo in 2020. Regardless of the outcome, the individual matchup of Meesseman vs. Gustafson is sure to be a good one, and there’s more than enough complementary talent on either side to deliver an instant classic.