After opening her fifth Olympics by helping the U.S. women's basketball team to an 81-72 preliminary round win over Nigeria, veteran Sue Bird said Tokyo would be her final appearance at the Summer Games.
Bird, 40, is the winningest player, female or male, in international history with four Olympic gold medals, four FIBA World Cup titles, and a bronze medal in a fifth World Cup.
She had no points Tuesday, but chipped in with 13 assists in Team USA’s victory, its 50th consecutive win at the Olympics Games.
“After the last couple years, after (the) Rio (Olympics in 2016), at that point, I was, whatever, I was, 36 or so, people started asking questions about how much longer you’re going to play, and so on and so forth, and I always said I was going to take it year by year,” Bird said after the game, “and as long as I was healthy and still playing at a high enough level, an elite level to be selected by the team, of course, I was going to accept that.”
When a reporter asked again if the Tokyo Olympics would be her last, she said, “Yeah.”
A’Ja Wilson, playing in her first Olympics, led all players with 19 points and 13 boards. Bird missed all six of her shots, but she added four rebounds and pushed her Olympic career assists total to 102.
For more on the Team USA's opening win, see Joe Vardon's story from Tokyo in the Go Deeper section.
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2021 Olympics: Sue Bird calls Tokyo her Summer Games swan song after U.S. win - The Athletic
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