Dawn Staley captures historic "gold" moment of A'ja Wilson making the podium after spectacular showdown in Paris Olympics

A'Ja Wilson is one of the biggest stars in the WNBA at the moment. For this, she was selected to the United States women's basketball team for the Paris Olympics.

The women's basketball tournament finished on Sunday, and the United States won the gold medal for the eighth consecutive time.

One person who was in Paris to watch it happen was Dawn Staley, the coach of the South Carolina Gamecocks women's basketball team. She posted on Instagram a video of A'Ja Wilson (a former player for South Carolina who played under Staley) receiving her gold medal.

A'Ja Wilson had a successful Olympic tournament. She led the United States team in average points per game with 18.7 and scored the second-highest number of points in the tournament with 112. In both of these metrics, the Belgian player Emma Meesseman (who does not play in the WNBA) led the tournament.

Wilson's individual performances helped the United States win the gold medal with an unbeaten record. The gold medal is their 10th at the Olympics and continues the dominance that the USA have had in Olympic basketball.

The unbeaten tournament also means that the women's team have not lost a game since the semi-final of the 1992 edition of the tournament. The team had to settle for a bronze on that occasion.

How did A'Ja Wilson and the United States win the gold medal?

To win the 2024 tournament, the United States had to fight hard. They faced the hosts, France, in what was a packed arena. The game started slow, and at one moment in the third quarter, the French were up by 10 points, and an upset was on the cards.

However, the United States came back to hold a three-point lead with seconds left on the clock. Then, French forward Gabby Williams was able to run the ball down the court to the edge of the three-yard line, where she was able to find the basket.

This play would be ruled to be worth two points, and Williams' feet were seen to be inside the three-point line by a few inches. This gave the United States a one-point victory.

The narrow win will go down as one of the better Olympic basketball finals and continues a dynasty that looks like it is going to take an equally powerful team to end.