La Jolla Country Day Alum Kelsey Plum Selected for Olympic Basketball Team

La Jolla Country Day School alumnus Kelsey Plum was among the 12-player U.S. Olympic women’s basketball team announced this week by USA Basketball that will seek an eighth consecutive gold medal.

Plum will be seeking her second Olympic gold medal. She was part of the women’s 3×3 team that won the gold medal in the Tokyo Games, the first time the event was held.

Plum is among nine players on the team to have won at least one Olympic gold medal, along with her Tokyo 3×3 teammate Jackie Young, one of her three teammates from the Las Vegas Aces on the team, along with A’ja Wilson and Chelsea Gray.

Gray and Wilson are among seven players returning from the gold medal-winning team at the team from the Tokyo Olympics, along with Diana Taurasi, who will be appearing in a record sixth consecutive Olympics, Napheesa Collier, Brittney Griner, Jewell Loyd and Breanna Stewart.

The team also consists of Taurasi and Griner’s Phoenix Mercury teammate Kahleah Copper, Stewart’s New York Liberty teammate Sabrina Ionescu and Alyssa Thomas of the Connecticut Sun.

Every member of the team has either an Olympic or World Cup gold medal.

“We have selected a team that we are confident will represent our country to the highest standard in Paris,” USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee chair Jen Rizzotti said in a statement.

“Basketball in the United States boasts unparalleled depth, making this a challenging and competitive process. The commitment these athletes have shown to USA Basketball is unmatched.”

The team was selected by the USA Basketball Women’s National Team Committee and approved by the USA Basketball Board of Directors.

The U.S. will be coached by Cheryl Reeve of the Minnesota Lynx.

The U.S. will begin Olympic play July 29 against Japan in Lille, France, where group play will be held. The knockout and medal rounds of the tournament will be played in Paris.

The U.S. will begin exhibition play July 20 against the WNBA All-Stars in Phoenix in the league’s All-Star Game.

Plum led La Jolla County Day to the 2012 CIF Division IV state championship. She scored a then-NCAA-record 3,527 points in her four seasons at Washington, including the single-season record, 1,109, as a senior in the 2016-17 season.

The career record was broken by Iowa guard Caitlin Clark Feb. 15, who finished her career with 3,951 points. Clark also broke Plum’s single-season scoring record, completing the 2023-24 season with 1,234 points.

Plum was the first overall selection in the 2017 WNBA draft by the San Antonio Stars. The team moved to Las Vegas before the start of the 2018 season. She was an All-WNBA first-team selection in 2022, helping lead the Aces to the first of two back-to-back championships.

City News Service contributed to this article.