PARIS, France — Two Georgia athletes have added a new Olympic medal to their career.
The Atlanta Dream's Rhyne Howard and Marietta native Dearica Hamby are taking home bronze medals.
Howard and Hamby, representing Team USA, helped beat Canada in a third-place match game with a score of 16-13. The team won gold in Tokyo in 2021.
11Alive's Faith Jesse spoke with the two medal winners after their game.
"Just resilience after each game, each practice, we talked about how if we were right there, we were going to get better and better and control the things we can control," Hamby said.
Team USA lost their first three games but bounced back in the play-in rounds, leading them to medal games.
"It just speaks to how hard we stick together and how hard we continue to play. I feel like those three first games, those three losses really helped us to grow, if we didn't have those maybe we'd be going home with nothing," Howard said shortly after the game.
More about Dearica Hamby (basketball, 3x3) - Online bio
Georgia connection: From Marietta, Norcross High alum; Country: USA
More about this athlete: Hamby, 30, is a WNBA veteran with nearly 10 seasons in the league.
She began playing 3-on-3 basketball, which was first introduced as an Olympic sport in Tokyo, just last year. She was part of a gold medal-winning team at the 2023 FIBA AmeriCup tournament and won tournament MVP.
In the WNBA, Hamby is a three-time All-Star and two-time Sixth Player of the Year Award winner. She won a WNBA Championship in 2022 with the Las Vegas Aces and currently plays for the Los Angeles Sparks.
More about Rhyne Howard (basketball, 3x3) - Online bio
Georgia connection: Plays for Atlanta Dream; Country: USA
More about this athlete: Howard is a rising star for Atlanta, the 2022 WNBA Rookie of the Year and a two-time WNBA All-Star.
She is competing in the 3-on-3 tournament for Team USA in Paris.
So far this season for the Dream, the 24-year-old is scoring 15.4 points per game with 4.9 rebounds and 3.4 assists.
11Alive is Atlanta's hub for the 2024 Paris Olympics this Summer. Know what's ahead with previews and keep up with the highlights on our website throughout the entire competition. To see all of our coverage, head here: 11alive.com/olympics.