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The Greatest Basketball Athlete at the Olympic Games

Who is the greatest Basketball athlete of all time based on Olympic Games performances? We have used a weighted total medal count of each male and female Basketball athlete from all modern Olympic Games to rank their overall performance, using data from all Olympics including the Tokyo 2020 Games.olympic poster

The best all-time performing basketball players at the Olympic Games are US female players Sue Bird and Diana Taurasi who have won five gold medals between 2004 and 2020. Only two male players have won three gold medals, Carmelo Anthony and Kevin Durant. See the table below to see how other top players are ranked.

See also the best athlete from each sport, and the best overall.



Top Olympic Games Basketball Players

Here are the top ranked athletes from the sport of Basketball for performances at all Olympiads, using the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System to order the athletes, awarding points for both gold (6 points) and other medals (silver 2 pts, bronze 1 pt).

Table: The Top Ranked Athletes from Basketball at the Olympic Games (including 2021)

rank name country gender Gold Silver Bronze total
medals
rating
=1 Sue Bird USA F 5 0 0 5 30
=1 Diana Taurasi USA F 5 0 0 5 30
3 Teresa Edwards USA F 4 0 1 5 25
=4 Lisa Leslie USA F 4 0 0 4 24
=4 Tamika Catchings USA F 4 0 0 4 24
6 Carmelo Anthony USA M 3 0 1 4 19
=7 Sheryl Swoopes USA F 3 0 0 3 18
=7 Dawn Staley USA F 3 0 0 3 18
=7 Katie Smith USA F 3 0 0 3 18
=7 Seimone Augustus USA F 3 0 0 3 18
=7 Sylvia Fowles USA F 3 0 0 3 18
=7 Kevin Durant USA M 3 0 0 3 18

notes: initial data from wikipedia of multiple Olympic gold medalists (with at least 3 gold medals, including results from 2021). For the ranking order, we have used the Topend Sports Weighted Ranking System.



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Olympics Extra

The next Olympics will be in Paris 2024, followed by the Winter edition in Milan-Cortina 2026. Check out the list of Olympic Games sports, as well as discontinued and demonstration sports.

Major Events Extra

The largest sporting event in the world is the Olympic Games, but there are many other multi-sport games. In terms of single sport events, nothing beats the FIFA World Cup. To see what's coming up, check out the calendar of major sporting events.

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