There are only a handful of seconds left for the Blues, trailing 67-64. Marine Johannès brings the ball up and we think she's going to shoot, despite her clumsiness of the day. Except that she serves Gabby Williamswho had just scored a 3-pointer to keep France alive. The Franco-American catches the ball in the air and has to draw very quickly.
It goes in at the buzzer and the Arena Bercy explodes. Overtime? Among the players, the reactions are mixed…
“I believed it, I didn't see where his foot was so it was a bit of an emotional rollercoaster.” explains Marième Badiane. “It was a close call.”
Gabby Williams quickly tells her teammates that she has her foot on the line. Which Valériane Ayayi knew.
“I saw her foot. I saw her foot when she shot. It almost hurt even more to see it go in because I saw her foot…” comments the one who was elected in the second five of the tournament. But was there a fault? “I don't know because I was looking at the feet, so it would have been good. It's a shame, it was close but we didn't lose the match on that shot. We lost the match well before that.”
It is not this shot that Marine Johannès regrets the most.
“I saw that she had her foot on the line but hey, I don't think we necessarily have any regrets about that. We had to give her the ball and then, it's played five centimetres away. That's how it is.” concludes the shooter.
“How proud we are to be French!”: until the end, the Blues bothered the Americans, crowned Olympic champions by a small point (67-66) #Paris2024 #FRAUSA pic.twitter.com/lU09MlJuJ1
— Eurosport France (@Eurosport_FR) August 11, 2024
