One Year To Tokyo 2020

One year from now we will get a break what promises to be an ugly 2020 election campaign in the United States to watch the opening ceremonies of the Games of the XXXII Olympiad.

The Tokyo Games will open on this date and close on August 9 in the soon to be completed New National Stadium.   Other venues are will be completed in time for the Games

It is not only the second time since 1964 that Tokyo has hosted a summer Games, it is the first Asian city to do so twice.  Japan has also hosted the winter Games twice (1972 Sapporo, 1998 Nagano).

It will also be the middle leg of three consecutive Olympic summer and winter Games being hosted in east Asia that started with the winter Games in Pyeyongchang last year and will conclude with the winter Games in Beijing in 2022.



When the Tokyo Games open there will be a record 33 sports in the 2020 Olympic program.  There will be along with the permanent core sports new additions like 3x3 basketball, freestyle BMX, and the Madison cycling race.  Baseball and softball will also return to the Olympic sporting program for the first time since 2008.

Four sports, surfing, karate, sport climbing and skateboarding will make their Olympic debut, and as usual, men's and women's soccer will start their respective tournaments before the opening ceremonies at stadiums across Japan.

One of the questions trans people around the world have is will this finally be the Games in which a trans athlete qualifies for their national team.   So far the only time a trans person has a ppeared inside an Olympic stadium was when model Lea T rode in on a tricycle carying Brazil's placard during the 2016  Rio Games opening ceremonies .

Over the last several Olympiads the host nations have been one upping each other on who has the most spectacular opening ceremony and who will have the most unique Olympic cauldron lighting.

Will be interesting to see not only who gets the honor of being the final Tokyo 2020 torch bearer, but how they light the cauldron and what it looks like during the opening ceremony.. 

We'll know the answer to that question in 366 days.   Yep, a summer Olympics always takes place during a leap year   

Tokyo Passes Law Banning TBLGQ Discrimination

For those of you who reflexively hate on the Olympics and fixate on the infrastructure costs associated with hosting an Olympic Games, here's a compelling argument in favor of having them in your city.

In the wake of what happened in Sochi, with the Russian government ramping up discrimination aimed at TBLGQ people by passing an anti-gay propaganda law on the eve of the 2014 Winter Games too late for them to be moved elsewhere,  the IOC as part of Olympic Agenda 2020 requires all future host cities to ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.

In order to meet that Olympics hosting requirement standard, on October 5 the Tokyo Metropolitan Government passed a TBLGQ rights law that states:

“The Tokyo Metropolitan Government, citizens, and enterprises may not unduly discriminate on the basis of gender identity or sexual orientation” and includes a government pledge to “conduct measures needed to make sure human rights values are rooted in all corners of the city and diversity is respected in the city.”

The new law also commits the Tokyo Metropolitan Government to do public education campaigns in the city about TBLGQ rights issues.

Tokyo, along with Tokyo prefecture which it merged with in 1943, and the Tokyo metropolitan area is home to 25% of Japan's population.

Japan doesn't have a national law yet legalizing same sex marriage, and Japanese transgender people are required to have gender confirmation surgery before they can obtain federal ID that matches their gender identity.

But Japan has been making positive strides on the TBLGQ rights front in the last several years. Well known trans women like 2009 Miss International Queen winner Ai Haruna live and work there.

According to Human Rights Watch, in 2016 Japan's Minister of Education released a teacher's guidebook that covered the topic of how to treat TBLGQ students.  That same year Japan, along with the Netherlands and the United States, led a UNESCO conference on TBLGQ bullying, and followed that up in March 2017 by the Ministry of Education modifying the national bullying policy to include TBLGQ students.

Since 2003, Aya Kamikawa has been serving on the council for the largest of the 23 wards that make up the historic city of Tokyo, Setagaya.

She was the first and only elected trans official in Japan until March 2017, when 26 year old Tomoya Hosoda became the first trans masculine person elected to public office in the Land of the Rising Sun by winning a seat on the Iruma City city council, located in the Saitama prefecture in the Greater Tokyo metro area.

He called his win at the time 'a marker for transgender rights' in his nation, and in the wake of it has worked to increase acceptance for all forms of diversity in Japan.

Still Looking For Our First Trans Olympian

The end of the Winter Olympics in PyeongChang also means that we have gone through another Summer and Winter Olympiad since the IOC opened the doors via the 2003 Stockholm Consensus for trans athletes to compete with no trans athlete competing in either Games. . 

The Consensus was subsequently updated so that trans masculine and trans feminine athletes would not require genital surgery to compete in an Olympic Games.

The first Olympics that trans athletes were eligible to compete was the 2004 Summer Olympics in  Athens, and the first Winter Games trans athletes were eligible to compete was in Torino.

Canadian cyclist Kristin Worley made a bid to qualify for the 2008 Beijing Games that unfortunately fell short and was mired in controversy.  She filed an ultimately successful lawsuit that forced Cycling Canada to open up the sport to trans athletes

On our side of the border trans masculine Keelin Godsey delayed taking testosterone for his transition to chase his dream of qualifying for a US Olympic team. 

Godsey tried to qualify for those same Beijing Games, but finished seventh in the women's hammer throw with a 66.55 meter throw.  Godsey missed qualifying .for Beijing and making history by an agonizing ten feet. 

Godsey did make history by making the US 2011 Pan American Games team and competed in the hammer throw, finishing fifth with his lifetime best of 67/84 meters.

He tried to qualify for the 2012 London Games. Despite making another personal best throw at the US Olympic Trials, he missed qualifying for London by an agonizing eleven inches.

So far the only appearance of a trans person at the Olympic Games has been model Lea T breaking ground as one of the placard models for the opening ceremonies of the 2016 Rio Games.

Hopefully that will change either in the next Summer games in Tokyo in 2020 or the next Winter Olympics in Beijing in 2022  and we will finally see a member of our trans family qualify as an Olympic athlete. .

Whoever that trans athlete is that finally does this for transkind, one thing they are guaranteed to get is international media coverage for making that sporting history

Bye PyeongChang...See You In 2022, Beijing

"The Olympic Games are an homage to the past and an act of faith for the future.  With your joint march, you have shared your faith in a peaceful future with all of us.  You have show our sport builds bridges in our very fragile world.  You have shown how sport builds bridges." 
-IOC president Thomas Bach

The Olympic Games that started earlier this month with a flurry of diplomatic activity that resulted in a joint North and South Korean team marching into the Olympic stadium under a unification flag as South Korean Olympic champion figure skater Kim Yuna lit the torch ended this morning our time as we slept here in the States.

In case you're wondering,Tongan cross country skier Pita Taufatofua was there at the closing ceremony in all his oiled up shirtless glory just as he was during the opening ceremony back on February 5.   He finished 114th in his cross country skiing event and greeted his fellow stragglers at the finish line, but is without a doubt the worldwide fan and Olympic athlete favorite of these Winter Games and the 2016 Rio ones.

Speaking of competition, the Norwegian national anthem was undeniably the soundtrack of these PyeongChang Games.   Norway led all nations with 39 total medals won (14G,14S,11B), and won a Games best 14 gold medals.

The Germans finished second with 31 total medals (14G, 10S, 7B) and tied Norway with 14 gold medals.  Our northern neighbors Canada were third on the medal table with 29 medals (11G, 8S, 10B) and the Netherlands after a fast start at the beginning of the Games, ended up fifth with 20 total medals (8G, 6S, 6B) tying the host South Koreans, who also ended up with 17 total medals (5G, 8S, 4B).

The Olympic Athletes From Russia despite the sanctions that forced it to use the Olympic flag and anthem and have the 168 athletes who did participate in these Games pass a stringent vetting process still managed to capture 17 total medals (2G, 6S, 9B) during this Olympiad, including the men's hockey gold medal.   

But old habits die hard.   The Olympic Athletes From Russia lost the chance to have their suspension lifted and march under their own flag for the closing ceremonies when two Russian athletes tested positive for banned substances.

Team USA, despite having the largest contingent of athletes in PyeongChang and narrowly finishing second in the medal count in Sochi with 28 medals to the host Russians, finished a disappointing by our standards fourth here in PyeongChang with 23 total medals (9G, 8S,6B)

It was shaping up to be a disappointing Winter Games for the US considering many American pre-Olympic medal favorites failed to make it to the podium or had disappointing results.  Despite historic feats in their performances by Nathan Chen and Mirai Nagasu, they didn't translate to a medal in their individual skating events.  They are bringing back home bronzes from the team event. 
Mikaela Shiffrin fell short of her goal of winning five gold medals as did Lindsey Vonn who is bringing home a bronze medal.   The US did have a late run powered by the first gold medal in women's hockey in 20 years, and surprising first ever women's gold in cross country skiing and the men's curling.

But these XXIII Winter Olympic Games are now headed for the history books, and while we wait for more history to be made when Beijing in four years becomes the first ever city and supplant Vancouver as the largest one to host a winter and summer games, we'll get to see in the runup to them the return of the summer Olympics to Tokyo in 2020 as part of the Asian continent's run of three consecutive Winter and Summer Games..

Bye PyeongChang.   See y'all in Beijing. 

Down Goes Canada! USA Women (Finally!)Win Hockey Gold!

The last time the USA women won a gold medal in women's hockey was during the Nagano Games in 1998.   Team USA beat Canada 7-4 in the preliminary round, then beat them when it counted 3-1 for the first every medal awarded in women's hockey.

Since then, as my green tea drinking north of the border homegirl has been reminding me, it has been a frustrating series of Olympic defeats for the USA women's hockey team despite successfully (and repeatedly) beating those Canadian behinds in the IIHF World Championships.

There was the 3-2 gold medal game loss to Canada on home soil in Salt Lake City in 2002.  Four years later in the 2006 Turin Games Team USA didn't even make it to the gold medal game.  They shockingly lost in an 3-2 OT shootout to Sweden in the semis and had to settle for the bronze medal.
 
In 2010 the USA lost to Olympic hosts Canada in Vancouver 2-0 in the gold medal match to collect another silver medal.   

The 2014 Sochi Games was the most frustrating USA women's Olympic hockey loss.  Team USA was up 2-0 in the third period and 3:26 from avenging those defeats until Canada scored twice to force overtime, then won it with a golden goal in overtime to win their fourth straight gold medal.

That loss has fueled the Team USA fire for the last four years.  As usual, they've beaten Canada in four straight IIHF world championships, with three of them happening post-Sochi, but would it finally translate to Olympic gold for Team USA?

Yep it did in PyeongChang. 

This was the third consecutive Olympiad that the USA and Canada had met in the gold medal match and as I warned my green tea drinking homegirl, Olympic win streaks can come to an end.

.Even with a 2-1 loss in the preliminary round to Canada back on February 15 Team USA was a confident bunch going into this game with their bitter rivals.

Team USA struck first late in the 1st period with a Hilary Knight goal to give them a 1- 0 lead.   But Canada struck back after the first intermission with two goals in the 2nd period to take a 2-1 lead into the locker room at the second intermission.

It wasn't looking good for Team USA until a failed 2-1 break and botched Canadian line change resulted in a breakaway goal from Monique Lamoureux with 6:21 remaining that tied the game at 2-2 and sent it to overtime.

After 20 minutes of overtime and constant pressure by Team USA on the Canadian goal resulted in no game winning golden goals for either side.  it was shootout time.

The USA won the coin flip and elected to go second and Amanda Kessel, Gigi Marvin and Jocelyn Lamoreux delivered in the shootout to gain revenge for Sochi and earn Team USA's first women's Olympic hockey medal in 20 years,



The World Champs are finally the Olympic Champs!

See y'all in Beijing,  Renee.

Meet The 1st Black Player Ever On The US Olympic Hockey Team

FOX Noise's John Moody may hate the diverse US Winter Olympic team, but I don't. 

One of the cool benefits of that team diversity is we have Black History being made by our 2018 winter Olympians in several events.   One of those events is hockey.

Because of a dispute with the International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) concerning several issues, the NHL refused to allow its players to participate in the Olympics this year.   That meant for the first time in three decades, the US team was going to be composed primarily of collegiate players.   One of the collegiate players who was selected to play on this men's Olympic hockey squad was Jordan Greenway of Canton, NY.

And with that selection, Greenway makes history.  When he steps on the ice at PyeongChang on February 14 the first African American ever to play on a USA Olympic hockey team.

“I dreamed of [it] as a kid, and I didn’t think it was going to happen before I graduated college, but I’m fortunate that it did, and I just couldn’t be more excited!” Greenway said in a CNN interview.

The 20 year old Greenway is also the tallest player on the team at 6 feet 5 inches and 238 pounds.  He was drafted by the NHL's Minnesota Wild in 2015, but decided to complete his college education at Boston University . Greenway also has a younger brother, JD who plays the sport.

“I’m the first African American to play hockey for the United States at the Olympics but hopefully I’m the first of many,” Greenway said. “Hopefully these kids go out, try something different, play hockey, and hopefully I see a lot more playing in the near future.”

I'll have even more incentive to not only watch the USA men's Olympic hockey team, but root for its success.   The last time a USA men's team won gold was when I was a high school senior at Lake Placid in 1980

Erin Jackson Is Going To The Olympics!

24 year old Erin Jackson has only been participating in long track speed skating full time for four months.   Coming into the US Olympic Speed Skating Trials in West Allis, WI she had posted a personal best 39.51 time in the 500m back on December 23 in Salt Lake City.

But the former University of Florida engineering student and inline skater from Ocala, FL picked a great time to set new personal best times, and did so when the pressure was highest.

"I really wasn't expecting any of this, just coming in as a newbie, just trying to do the best I can. " said Jackson. "A couple of weeks ago I was still in the 40's.  So this has all happened pretty fast."

The best she can is going to take her to Pyeongchang, South Korea and the Winter Olympics.

She went 39.22 in her first heat during the Trials Friday night, and even faster in her second heat at 39.04 to become the first Black female athlete ever to qualify for a US Olympic long track speed skating team.

Jackson finished third in the 500m, behind her Ocala, FL homegirl Brittany Bowe and Heather Bergsma to punch her ticket to Pyeongchang.

February 8 and the start of the upcoming Winter Games is getting more interesting by the day with all this Black Girl Magic happening.

Nigerian Women Bobsledders Make Olympic History

The 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea will start on February 9, and the sports junkie I am will definitely be tuned into the action from that date until they conclude on February 25.

Hopefully Kim Jong Fool Un will behave himself while the world's athletes are on the other side of the DMZ from North Korea  .

As has been proven in the United States, track athletes have been majorly successful in crossing over and reinvigorating the US bobsled program.   Vonetta Flowers earned a gold medal in the two woman bobsled competition in Salt Lake City in 2002,  and the 2014 Sochi bobsled team was composed of five Black women including Summer Olympic gold medalist Lauryn Williams and Lolo Jones 

Now in a shades of Cool Runnings Jamaican bobsled team story,  three US based Nigerian women track athletes have made history by being the first continental African team to qualify a sled in the Winter Olympics.

Driver and team captain Seun Adigun and brakewomen Akuoma Omeoga and Ngozi Onwumere are also the first Nigerians to ever qualify for the Winter Olympics, and did much of it on their own. 

Adigun competed as a sprinter for Nigeria at the 2012 Summer Games in London and got the idea to compete in the Winter Games while watching on television the success the 2014 USA women's bobsled team had in Sochi powered largely by US track athletes

She convinced fellow US based track athletes Omeoga and Onwumere to join her, and Adigun built a wooden sled for the trio to practice with they dubbed 'the Mayflower' until they could purchase a bobsled.   Adigun raised $75,000, including $50,000 from a single anonymous donor of a stated goal of $150,000/ 

That was enough to get attention and support from the Nigerian Olympic Committee, for a Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Federation to form and for the trio to get a chance to practice on ice. They have since that time obtained corporate sponsorships from Under Armour and Visa

To qualify, the trio had to drive their sled through five runs on three different bobsled tracks in Utah, and at Whistler and Calgary which they successfully completed in November by finishing fifth.

This is a huge milestone for sports in Nigeria," Adigun told ESPN. "Nothing makes me prouder than to know that I can play a small role in creating opportunities for winter sports to take place in Nigeria." 

"Our objective now is to be the best representation of Africa that the Winter Olympics has ever witnessed," said Adigun.

“I commend the personal dedication and commitment of these women,” Nigerian Bobsled and Skeleton Federation President Solomon Ogba told ESPN. “Their hard work was inspiring, and I hope Nigerians can appreciate what it took for them to achieve this — the work, the discipline and the personal sacrifices. They were amazing throughout this journey.” 

While continental African athletes have competed in the Winter Games, as of yet none has stood on a medal podium,

We'll see in a few weeks if this story has a happy ending and ends up at a multiplex near you.

2016 Olympics Watch- Darn, It's Over

The 2016 Rio Olympic Games are coming to a close today, and far from Donald Trump's loud and wrong assertion that the USA doesn't win anymore, that's all Team USA in all its diverse glory has been doing since the Games kicked off August 6 .

In many cases, they were historic wins in several sports like our first ever medals in the triathlon, or first medals of of any color in many sports in decades.

Team USA led all nations with 121 medals won, and 46 of them were gold.  The rest of the top five nations in the 2016 Rio Olympic medal count were Great Britain  (27 golds, 67 medals). China (26 golds, 70 medals) , Russia (19 golds, 56 total), and Germany (17 golds, 42 medals).

The closing ceremonies will happen starting at 7 PM CDT, and Simone Biles will be leading Team USA into the Maracana stadium as our flag bearer.  She's the first gymnast to be given that honor.

But after watching the competition in Rio play out over the last two weeks, I'm always sad when I see the Olympic flag come down from the flagpole where it has proudly flapped during the Games, get marched out of the stadium and the Olympic flame get extinguished.

This was also an interesting Olympics for me because I was in Washington DC when the opening ceremonies happened, watching some events from Chautauqua, and now back home in Houston for the closing ceremonies.

Fortunately because since 1992 the winter and summer Games are no longer contested in the same year, won't have to wait too long until Olympic sporting action happens again in just two short years in Pyeongchang, South Korea.

The next summer games are in Tokyo, and will be interesting to see what happens for the Team USA Olympians that gather to compete four years from now in the Land of the Rising Sun.

2016 Olympics Watch-Semenya Wins Gold!

Well haters, Caster Semenya handled her Olympic business and won the 800m gold that eluded her in London.  

Semenya won her race in a personal best time of 1:55:28, which is not only the best time run in the world in the 800m this year, it was also a South African national record.

What was even more delicious for me was that the silver and bronze medalists who finished behind the Olympic champion were also continental Africans.  Burundi's Francine Niyonsaba captured the silver and Kenya's Margaret Wambui took the bronze/

.And unfortunately, the same innuendo that has dogged Semenya since 2009 has popped up in Rio to shadow the silver and bronze medalists.

Niyonsaba took the lead in the race with 300m to go but Semenya unleashed her finishing kick with 150m left in the race to win

The haters can keep on pouting in the corner and trying to throw shade at the now 25 year old Semenya.  The 800m gold medal is still going back to South Africa with Caster,  

Congratulations, and see you in 2020 sis as you defend your title in Tokyo.

Playing A Transsexual In A Bad Movie Doesn't Make You An Expert On Our Sporting Lives

One of the things I and many trans persons get sick of is people who don't live our trans lives making loud and wrong commentary about them that is detrimental to our humanity as trans people and our international human rights cause.

The latest person to fall into that trap of flapping their loud and wrong gums about our lives is actress Michelle Rodriguez.  She's already catching flak from our community concerning an upcoming movie in which she plays a doublecrossed male assassin that gets kidnapped and given SRS against his will in a movie originally called Tomboy but has now been renamed (re)Assignment.

Still not going to deflect from the fact this looming transphobic trope filled disaster of a movie will be desecrating multiplexes soon, and Trans World will still be calling out the problems in it.

I'll deal with that transphobic trainwreck of a movie in another post.  What I need to do right now is address the WTF tweet that Rodriguez sent calling for a transgender category in the Olympic Games that was aimed at South African 800m runner Caster Semenya, who goes for gold later tonight.

The first problem with this tweet is it's conflating the issues of transgender participation in sports with the issue of hyperandrogenism, and is spreading misinformation to do so.

Let me state for the record Ms. Rodriguez since you obviously aren't aware of this fact, but the IOC since 2004 has allowed trans people to compete in the Olympic Games after consulting with medical experts from around the world familiar with transgender medical issues and transgender inclusion in world sport.    

The International Olympic Committee was obviously satisfied enough about what they  heard from the IOC Medical Commission concerning transgender sporting participation in the Games to issue the Stockholm Consensus that many international sporting federations use as their guidelines for transgender sporting participation in the sporting competitions they oversee.

The International Olympic Committee also in November 2015 refined those procedures and policies in the wake of the IOC Meeting On Sex Reassignment and Hyperandrogenism.

The NCAA also allows transgender athletes to participate in collegiate sports, and those rules are mirrored by 34 state high school sporting associations and counting.

Let me also point out for you as well Ms. Rodriguez and any other peeps believing the fallacy, that trans women after a year on estrogen and testosterone suppression hormone protocols lose whatever strength and endurance advantage stemming from going through a masculine puberty.

I played varsity tennis in high school and still play from time to time, and I noticed I lost speed on my serve as a result of being on hormones since 1994,

The fallacy that because I or any trans feminine athlete went through a masculine puberty I could go out and for example join the women's professional tennis tour and dominate it is ludicrous at best and would be demolished the nanosecond I stood on a tennis court with Serena Williams on the other side of it and had to face her 120 mph serve she would blast past me with boring regularity.

And with trans feminine kids transitioning at earlier ages, they will be going through FEMALE puberty, not a masculine one.  It's also a disservice and an insult to cisgender female athletes everywhere to falsely claim that a trans feminine athlete would simply take over their sport just because we transitioned.

I'm also disappointed Ms. Rodriguez as a fan of your acting career, a fellow woman of color and BTLG community member that you resorted to attacking Caster Semenya as your vehicle to slam trans Olympic participation.  

I'm tired of seeing the racist attacks on Semenya from white women mad that Semenya has run the fifth fastest time ever in the 800m, and alarmed about the perceived threat in their minds that she presents to their hold on a track event they have recently dominated.

The fact that Semenya was 18 and from South Africa when she ran that 1:55:49 time at the 2009 world championships, and would only get better with time and training has really 'scurred' them into action to stop her since they feared they couldn't beat her on the track.

The ongoing attacks since 2009 on Semenya's femininity and gender presentation also plays into the racist 'unwoman' trope that has plagued African descended women across the African Diaspora since slavery, and has been exacerbated by the fact she is in a same sex relationship..

Looks like Mariya Savinova, the Russian woman who won the gold in London in 2012 had to allegedly get her better athletic performance through chemistry to beat Semenya.

But back to talking about trans people and their Olympic Games participation.

The IOC has made it clear in 2004 and again in 2015 that I or any trans person who puts in the work in their chosen sport, meets the criteria from their international sporting body and their national Olympic Committee to qualify for their national Olympic team in their chosen sport will be allowed to participate in the Olympic Games.

I want to see trans women do more in the Olympics than just be part of the opening ceremonies, I want to see a trans women one day standing on a medal platform and competing and winning in their chosen sports.  The trans kids growing up today also need to see that happen in a future winter or summer games and I hope they do in the rest of my remaining time on Planet Earth.

Ms. Rodriguez, being a cisgender person playing a transsexual in a bad transsexual trope filled movie doesn't make you an expert on our sporting lives.

Being a trans person or trans ally that is cognizant of the issues that impact our lives, and has either the lived experience or has done the research to intelligently talk about it does.

2016 Olympic Watch- Going For The Sixpeat!

The five time defending Olympic champion USA women's basketball team has been marching toward this hopefully golden moment ever since they opened the Games on August 7 with a 121-56 blowout win in Group B play with Senegal.

The Team USA women then smashed Spain 103-63, Serbia 110-84, Canada 81-51, and China 102-65 to exit Group B play with a 5-0 record.

They then entered the knockout rounds and rolled to a 110-64 win over Japan on August 16 and punched their ticket to the gold medal game with an 86-67 win over FIBA number four ranked France to get to the Olympic basketball final for the sixth time since 1996.

This matchup for the gold medal is with a familiar foe in Spain. In addition to Team USA taking them down in the group stage, they vanquished the Spanish women in the 2014 FIBA World Championship final.

So how impressive and dominant is this 2016 Olympic version of Team USA?  

*They set the all time USA women point record (121) in the Senegal win.
*Set the US record for largest point differential in a game with the 65 point win over Senegal
*They became the first women's Olympic squad to score 100 points in three straight games.
*Set a new Olympic record of 40 assists in one game after tying the Olympic record of 36 assists set by the Soviet Union back in 1976.
* Have beaten their Rio Olympic competition by an average of 38.4 points

A lot is on the line for the Team USA women in addition to capturing their sixth consecutive gold medal since the 1996 Atlanta Games.  Also on the line is continued women's worldwide basketball supremacy, the FIBA number one ranking and auto qualifying spot in the 2019 FIBA championships, and their Olympic winning streak that has now reached 48 straight games since they won the bronze medal in Barcelona in 1992.

There is concern in the Team USA camp with point guard Sue Bird being day to day with a sprained knee suffered in the second quarter of the Japan game, but they are determined to complete their mission of being on the top step of the Olympic platform when this game is over.

If by some miracle Spain wins this game, it would be the biggest upset in Olympic basketball history and rank with the 1972 Munich gold medal game versus the Soviet Union the USA men had stolen from them in the final seconds.

Don't think this gold medal game with Spain will be that close, seeing that Team USA beat Spain by 40 points in pool play and the closest anyone has been to them was France in the semifinal, and they beat France by 19 points without Sue Bird in the lineup.

But Spain won't be rolling over for them either, and have some game film to study as a result of that pool play game. Game film cuts both ways, and we have Geno Auriemma on our bench and they don't.

We'll see if Team USA can win number 49 in a row today and their sixth straight gold medal at 1:30 PM CDT.