Paris milestone: Spain’s Rudy Fernandez becomes 1st basketball player to appear in 6 Olympics

VILLENEUVE-D’ASCQ, France (AP) — Spain’s Rudy Fernandez has become the first male basketball player to compete in six Olympics.

The 39-year-old Fernandez achieved the milestone Saturday when he checked in at the 5:18 mark of the first quarter during Spain’s matchup with Australia to open the Paris Olympic tournament.

Fernandez was scoreless in 17 minutes, and Spain fell to Australia 92-80 in a Group A opener.

Diana Taurasi should join Fernandez as the first female basketball player to compete in six Olympics when the U.S. women open play against Japan on Monday.

Spain’s Juan Carlos Navarro, Puerto Rico’s Teofilo Cruz, Australia’s Andrew Gaze, Brazil’s Oscar Schmidt and Argentina’s Luis Scola have all played in five Olympics.

Fernandez is a three-time Olympic medalist with Spain, having won silvers at Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012 — both times falling in the gold-medal game to the U.S. — along with a bronze at Rio de Janeiro at 2016. He also was part of Spain’s team that won the 2019 World Cup in China.