USA Women's World Championship Team Named USOC's October Team of the Month

Nov. 12, 2010 • Colorado Springs, Colo.

The U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) announced Friday that the 2010 USA Basketball Women’s World Championship Team was awarded USOC Team of the Month honors for October. USA Basketball repeats this month with another strong performance on the international level. Last month, Kevin Durant and the USA Men's World Championship team won Male Athlete and Team of the Month honors. 

Gymnast Alicia Sacramone and cyclist Taylor Phinney were named the USOC October Athletes of the Month, while Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury) finished second in the Female Athlete of the Month running. 

The 2010 USA Basketball Women’s World Championship Team did not arrive in the Czech Republic as defending gold medalists, but the players and coaches made it their mission to depart with gold medals. And they did so by dominating opponents by an eye-popping average margin of 35.1 points a game.

The USA won all nine of its games over an 11-day span, including an 89-69 win over host Czech Republic in the gold medal contest, to capture the 2010 FIBA World Championship gold medal. The U.S., at the event that’s held just once every four years, outscored its 2010 opponents by an average margin of 35.1 points per game. In the Oct. 1-3 medal round the U.S. averaged a whopping 100.3 ppg., while limiting their quarterfinal, semifinal and gold medal game opponents to a combined average of 61.0 ppg., a difference of 39.3 ppg.

The well-balanced U.S. team ranked first among all 16 teams in seven of the 19 major statistical categories, including scoring (96.2 ppg.), scoring margin, field goal percentage (.549), rebounding margin (+18.0 rpg.), assists (15.3 apg.), rebounding defense (26.0 rpg.) and steals (11.8 spg.); while ranking among the top five in 18 of the 19 categories.

Taurasi helped lead the USA Basketball World Championship Team to an 89-69 victory over host Czech Republic at the 2010 FIBA Women's World Championship on Oct. 3 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic. Helping the U.S. win all nine of its games in 11 days, Taurasi played fewer than 21 (out of 40) minutes a game, but finished as the team's leading scorer (12.0 ppg.), passed out a team second-best 23 assists and shot a blistering 50.0 percent (14-28) from 3-point range en route to being named to the five-member All-World Championship Team. In the Oct. 1-3 medal round, she averaged 11.3 points, and 3.3 assists per game.

Two years after retiring from gymnastics and just two and a half months after returning to competition, Sacramone (Winchester, Mass.) won the world vault title at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 16-24. Sacramone won the vault gold medal with a 15.200, the average of her two vault scores.  

She became just the second U.S. woman to win the world vault title and now has one gold, one silver and two bronze world vault medals. Sacramone's career world medal total is now nine (three gold, four silver and two bronze), tying Shannon Miller and Nastia Liukin with the most world medals among U.S. women. 

On Oct. 1, the 20-year-old Phinney (Boulder, Colo.) became the first-ever American to win a medal in the Under-23 Road Race at the UCI Road World Championships in Geelong, Australia. In a rare occurrence, he tied for the bronze with Guillaume Boivin (CAN). The bronze was in addition to the U23 time trial world title he won two days earlier on September 29.  

The pair of gold and bronze medals which Phinney brought home from the Road World Championships mark the first time since 2004 that a U23 rider medaled in both the time trial and road race events. 

Each National Governing Body may nominate up to but no more than one female, one male and one team per discipline. The winners are then voted on from that pool of nominees.  

Coming in third place was speedskater Katherine Reutter (Champaign, Ill.) who had a dynamic start to the 2010/2011 Korean Air ISU Short Track World Cup season. The 2010 Olympic silver and bronze medalist skated to a combined six trips to the podium at World Cups #1 (Montreal) and #2 (Quebec). Reutter collected two gold medals (1500m, 1000m), three silver medals (3000m relay, 1500m, 1000m) and one bronze medal (3000m relay) in the span of two World Cup weekends. She is also the current World Cup leader in the 1000m distance. Reutter was propelled to the third place position with strong support on the online poll held through Twitter.

Coming in second place for the men was Joey Mantia (Ocala, Fla.) who earned two gold medals, two silver medals and one bronze medal this month at the 2010 Inline Speed Skating World Championships in Guarne, Colombia, Oct. 20-30. Mantia proved many theories incorrect as he has shown over and over that you can be a distance athlete and a sprinter. His medals at the 2010 World Championships were in events that ranged from 300 meters to 20 K. 

Taking third was reigning U.S. champion gymnast Jonathan Horton (Houston, Texas). Horton won the men's all-around bronze medal at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 16-24. He just missed the silver, finishing less than two tenths-of-a-point behind Germany's Philipp Boy, with an 89.864. It was also the USA's first men's all-around world medal since 2003 when Paul Hamm won the title. 
Due to the schedule, the men had less than 24 hours between the conclusion of the team finals, where he lead the U.S. men to a fourth place finish and the all-around finals. 

Placing second in the team voting was the 2010 Women's Gymnastics World Championship Team. The U.S. women won the team silver medal, finishing just 0.201 points behind Russia, at the 2010 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships at the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, Netherlands, Oct. 16-24. The U.S. women continued their streak of winning a team medal at every World Championships and Olympic Games since 2000. For the entire World Championships, the USA won one gold, two silver and three bronze medals for a total of six medals. 

Coming in third was the U.S. Short Track Speedskating World Cup Team which began the season with outstanding performances in World Cup #1 in Montreal (10/22-25) and World Cup #2 in Quebec(10/29-31), winning a total of 17 medals - reaching the podium in 15 out of 20 distances. Collectively, Team USA, comprised of Olympic veterans and talented newcomers, brought home five gold, eight silver, and four bronze medals. As with team member Reutter, the team was propelled into the third place spot through strong voting in this month's online polling. The team earned enough votes to lock up second place which gave them enough additional points to make the podium yet again.