‘Woman of faith’ Kelsey Plum helps U.S. women win 3-on-3 Olympic gold

The U.S. team of Kelsey Plum, Stefanie Dolson, Allisha Gray, and Jackie Young have won the first women’s gold medal in the new Olympic sport of 3-on-3 basketball.

Plum scored five points as the United States defeated the Russian Olympic Committee, 18-15, today to win the inaugural Olympic gold medal in women’s 3×3 basketball.

3×3 is played with a 12-second shot clock on a half court. Baskets inside the arc and free throws are worth one point and baskets made from outside the arc are worth two points. The winner is the first team to score 21 points or the leading team at the end of the 10-minute game clock.

While playing with her WNBA team, the Las Vegas Aces, last June, Plum tore an Achilles tendon and missed the entire pandemic-delayed and shortened 2020 season.

But on May 15, she played in her first WNBA game since the 2019 postseason, and then appeared in one more game before heading off to Austria for a 3×3 Olympic qualifying tournament.

Plum thanked God, among others, after the team qualified for the Tokyo Games.

“I just want to thank a lot of people: God, my mom, my family, my friends,” she said. “I want to thank USA Basketball. They could’ve quit on me. They could’ve said, ‘We’re going to bring somebody else,’ and they didn’t. I’m just super grateful to my teammates, I mean, man, this was a battle.”

Learn more about her inspiring story.

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