Diana Taurasi Daniela Porcelli/Eurasia Sport Pictures/Getty Pictures
Diana Taurasi’s gold medal celebration on the 2024 Paris Olympics was an emotional household affair.
Moments after Taurasi and the Staff USA ladies’s basketball staff defeated France 67-66 in the gold medal sport on Sunday, August 11, Taurarsi, 42, embraced her mother and father Mario and Liliana courtside inside Bercy Enviornment.
In a video captured by ESPN’s Holly Rowe, dad Mario was overcome with emotion and was seen wiping away tears from his eyes. A smiling Taurasi kissed her father’s brow because the group posed for pictures within the euphoric aftermath.
Mario is a former athlete himself, having performed skilled soccer in Italy earlier than immigrating to the US.
As Staff USA takes on the 2024 Paris Olympics, the American athletes have already made an impression on the summer time Video games. The 2024 Olympics kicked off on Friday, July 26, with an illustrious opening ceremony that befell completely outside on the River Seine and featured performances from the likes of Celine Dion and Woman […]
Not solely did the victory earn Staff USA their eighth straight Olympic gold medal, it was an particularly historic second for Taurasi. The win gave Taurasi her sixth Olympic gold medal, probably the most of any basketball participant in Olympic historical past.
Diana Taurasi and Mario Taurasi Elsa/Getty Pictures
The sport additionally marked Taurasi’s last Olympic look.
“I’m right here to compete. I’m right here to play at a excessive degree. I’m right here to present to my teammates and I’m right here to win a gold medal — that’s it,” Taurasi instructed reporters when she arrived in Paris. “I don’t care in regards to the final 20 years. I’m anxious in regards to the subsequent 20 years.”
Taurasi’s ardour for mentorship got here in clutch throughout the staff’s run in Paris, particularly after she was taken out of the staff’s beginning lineup earlier than Staff USA’s quarterfinal sport towards Nigeria on Wednesday, August 7.
“The largest factor that I like about DT is that she doesn’t change,” Taurasi’s Staff USA teammate A’Ja Wilson instructed The Athletic. “She is at all times so constant in what she does — that could be a signal of greatness.”
The 2024 Paris Olympics have created a number of picture-perfect moments since kicking off on July 26. Maybe probably the most viral snap got here throughout the third spherical of the boys’s browsing competitors on July 29. After finishing a barrel journey in Teahupo’o, Tahiti, Brazilian surfer Gabriel Medina soared within the air and pointed his finger towards the […]
In an unique interview with Us Weekly previous to the Olympics, Taurasi touted a lot of those self same values when she urged endurance with WNBA rookies Caitlin Clark and Angel Reese, who have been each left off the 2024 Olympic squad.
“Transition intervals don’t escape anybody,” Taurasi stated in June. “That’s one thing all of us should undergo. Typically you discover a technique to get by that your first yr, generally it takes you two years, generally it takes you three years. Typically it takes you two years to go abroad and actually hone your craft and be very assured in what you are able to do.”
Taurasi added, “Everybody has a special journey and totally different path. Typically you gotta give these children some grace. Their careers are so lengthy. They’re a month into their WNBA careers. They’re solely gonna get higher. They’re solely gonna get extra snug with all the pieces round them.”
As soon as again from Paris, Taurasi will rejoin the WNBA’s Phoenix Mercury the place she is within the midst of taking part in her twentieth season within the league. She has not introduced whether or not or not this season might be her final.
