Two of the greatest to ever don the blue and gold continue to make waves on the national stage. On Sunday and following a three-day training camp in Brooklyn, N.Y., Jewell Loyd and Jackie Young were named to USA Basketball’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament Roster. The group will compete from Feb. 8-11 at the 2024 FIBA Women’s Olympic Qualifying Tournament in Antwerp, Belgium. Team USA has won the last seven Olympic gold medals.
Notre Dame is one of just two schools with more than one former player on the squad. Both Young and Loyd are former No. 1 overall WNBA draft selections.
Loyd won an Olympic gold in 2020 as part of Team USA, so she is seeking her second appearance on the world’s biggest stage. A two-time WNBA champion with the Seattle Storm (2018 and 2020), Loyd broke the W’s single-season scoring record last season with 939 points. She also has 4,807 career points, which ranks 27th in WNBA history.
Young, one of several star guards for the 2022 and 2023 WNBA champion Las Vegas Aces, is also in pursuit of her second Olympic gold medal. She earned her first as a member of the United States’ women’s 3×3 team in 2020 in Tokyo.
The Indiana native is coming off of her best season to date, during which she was named a WNBA All-Star starter for the first time. Last season, Young averaged 17.6 points, 4.0 rebounds and 3.8 assists per game. She led the league with a 44.9 success rate from behind the arc, and she was sixth in the W in total field goal percentage (52.3).
Team USA will face off against Belgium on Feb. 8 at 2:45 p.m. ET, against Nigeria on Feb. 9 at 12:15 p.m. ET and against Senegal on Feb. 11 at 1:15 p.m. ET. After winning the 2022 World Cup, the USA has automatically qualified for the 2024 Paris Olympics. During the competition in Antwerp, three additional four-team Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will take place in Brazil, China and Hungary. The top three teams at each tournament, including the United States, will qualify for the Olympics.