Eurosport (DR) / New York Liberty (DR)

Between a heartbreaking last shot and contested refereeing decisions, the women’s final between the United States and France was full of twists and turns.

Marine Johannès also spoke after the match, slipping in a few words about the men’s Team USA.

A few millimeters, that’s what the French women’s team missed against the United States.

Gabby Williams thought she had equalized at the last second, but she unfortunately bit the three-point line… a frustrating conclusion to a match where the Blues fought until the end, pushing the American superstars to their last entrenchments.

Were A’ja Wilson and others then favored by the referees?

This was the controversy that was making the rounds on social networks after the fact, some of the officials’ decisions being very questionable.

For her part, Marine Johannès, however, only wants to focus on her own performance. Questioned by Le Parisien , the former New York Liberty star was very frank:

Marine Johannès without too much regret after the defeat against Team USA

There is disappointment, but we can be proud of ourselves, of our match and our performance.

We managed to make the best team in the world doubt themselves.

We felt they were less confident, and that doesn’t happen every day. Unfortunately, we lost by a single point.

To hope for better, we would have had to play the perfect match. That wasn’t the case, we made a few small mistakes.

Even if we can consider that a point is really nothing, a small detail. I think we showed a good image, we listened to Aimé (Toupane, coach of the Bleues) by following the plan.

Everything went through the defense and we did everything we could. (…) We may not have pressed enough on their weak points, but overall we played a very good match.

It should be noted that there were some very nice people at Bercy to follow the match, starting with the men’s Team USA.

Gold medalist in the same room a few hours earlier, LeBron James and his gang wanted to support their female counterparts.

A detail that obviously did not escape MJ23 during the match:

We heard them supporting the United States a lot, especially. We didn’t focus on that. Of course, it’s nice to see NBA players come watch a women’s game. But we quickly moved on to something else.

A disappointment yes, but no regrets to have about this Olympic final according to Marine Johannès. The French Team gave everything and even more than the men, it came very close to overthrowing Team USA. A gigantic feat in itself, therefore.