WASHINGTON, D.C. – USA Basketball announced today that Mystics guard and Olympic gold medalist Ariel Atkins has been named to the 2024 USA Olympic Qualifying Tournament Team. The team will compete at the 2024 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament from February 8-11 in Antwerp, Belgium. The roster was selected by the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee.
Atkins represented Team USA at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games and 2022 FIBA World Cup, earning gold medals for both events. As a member of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Team, she helped Team USA compile a 6-0 record to claim the gold medal in Tokyo. During the 2022 FIBA World Cup in Australia, she averaged 10.5 points per game, leading the USA to a 2-0 mark against Belgium and Puerto Rico and was named to the five-member all-tournament team. Atkins also participated in the 2023 USA Basketball Women’s National Team minicamp last February.
In her six-year career in the WNBA, the two-time All-Star and WNBA champion has averaged 13.1 points per game, 2.9 rebounds per game, 2.3 assists per game and 1.4 steals per game. In addition to helping lead Washington to back-to-back WNBA Finals appearances and a championship in 2019, Atkins earned All-Defensive Team honors in each of her first five WNBA seasons, the only player in WNBA history to do so.
A mainstay with USA Basketball, Mystics General Manager Mike Thibault will serve as an assistant on USA Basketball Women’s National Team Head Coach Cheryl Reeve’s staff. He also served as an assistant on Reeve’s staff during the 2022 FIBA Women’s Basketball Championship, where Team USA won a gold medal.
Thibault’s prior USA Women’s National Basketball Team experience includes being a member of the coaching staff that won gold during the 2008 Beijing Olympics and the 2006 National Team that captured bronze during the World Championship.
Thibault, the winningest coach in WNBA history, retired from coaching in the WNBA in November 2022.