Lynette Woodard is one of women’s basketball’s greatest pioneers: a five-tool player who could do it all while dazzling fans with her infectious enthusiasm and magnetic smile.
Throughout her career, she has been a “first” both as an individual and as part of a team. At the University of Kansas, she is first in seven statistical categories, including scoring, rebounding and steals. She was the first woman to play for the Harlem Globetrotters.
Those are individual firsts. 40 years ago, Woodard was part of a historic group first.
At the 1984 Olympic Games in Los Angeles, she was a member of the first US Women’s National Basketball Team to bring home a gold medal. Among her teammates were Cheryl Miller, Pam McGee, Teresa Edwards and Kim Mulkey. The Americans went undefeated and dominated their opponents by double figures in every game, including a 92-61 victory over Canada in the gold medal game. All the games were played at the Great Western Forum in Los Angeles. Woodard feels “eternally grateful” for the experience, in large part for the work it took to get there.
It had been a long four years after the United States boycotted the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow over the Soviet Union’s invasion of Afghanistan. As a result, the Olympic dream of American athletes who put in years of sacrifice, including Woodard, were derailed. As she told Swish Appeal in an interview:
We worked just as hard to be there, but just overnight we weren’t able to attend. So to be able to weather the storm, if you will, for four years, continue to train, doing all the things that were necessary to make that team, I was so happy and eternally grateful to be a part of it.
It was also a long eight years after the US Women’s National Team came away with the silver medal at the 1976 Montreal Games, the first-ever Olympics to feature women’s basketball. Woodard “beams with pride” when thinking about playing alongside her fellow future legends on the 1984 team and how they would help to grow the game. She shared:
Everyone on that team had game and we respected each other’s game. It was a fantastic time. Cheryl, who was probably the number one college player at that time and had that West Coast vibe. To watch Kim Mulkey over the years, the McGee twins, they were just some heavy hitters who brought a lot to the game and really helped to build that foundation that sealed that opportunity for us to get that gold medal.
To win the first-ever gold medal for the United States in women’s basketball was one thing, but to win it at home was icing on the cake. Woodard explained:
It meant everything. We had to go through that boycott so we know that it did not have to be. You waited anxiously up until it was game time to be able to say, ‘Yes we did it, we’re here, there’s no turning back.’ It really held our focus and we just took one game at a time and that’s all you could really do. It forced us not to look too far down the road, stay right in the pocket where we needed to be, so that we can come out of there victorious.
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The 1984 Olympics were defined in large part by the exploits of the American athletes in front of a rabid partisan crowd. Mary Lou Retton won hearts with her perfect 10 performance in gymnastics. Carl Lewis cemented his status as the “world’s fastest man” with four gold medals. Edwin Moses glided his way to greatness in the 400-meter hurdles. The US boxing team, led by Evander Holyfield, became one of the most decorated. Florence Griffith Joyner made her debut. The US men’s basketball team steamrolled their way to a gold medal, led by the likes of Michael Jordan, Patrick Ewing and Sam Perkins.
Woodard said being around the Olympic Village with many of these eventual superstars was unforgettable. As she describes it:
The things we got to enjoy was the Olympic Village. Being able to walk around, eat the greatest food, it was really awesome, meet a lot of people in the community. It was a vibe that was second to none and people look forward to it every Olympic Games. You want to hear about that village, you want to go to that village, you want to see that village just so you can really feel a part of what the Olympic Games is all about. A lot of folks we got to rub shoulders with before they became these megastars, it was really cool.
The 1984 team is in many ways the link between the 1976 team and the present day. They were the beginning of what has become one of the greatest dynasties in all of sports. The women of Team USA are poised to win their ninth gold medal in Paris, as well as their eighth-consecutive dating back to the historic 1996 team that captured gold at the Atlanta Games.
Woodard wants the 1984 team to be remembered as the ones “who set the foundation,” while also crediting those who came before and expressing pride in what the team has become. She said:
We brought the gold home. We can honestly say that we helped start that and, not to negate anyone, the 1976 team they did a great job too, they brought us to the silver, but we went ahead and kicked that door down. We’ve been victors ever since and we want to keep that.
