Cheryl Reeve named U.S. women's national team coach, will lead team at 2024 Olympics

The Lynx coach and general manager has led Minnesota to four WNBA titles in 12 seasons.

December 8, 2021 at 1:54AM
Cheryl Reeve has been the most successful coach in WNBA history, with four titles. (Carlos Gonzalez, Star Tribune/The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Cheryl Reeve, who led the Lynx to four WNBA titles, is in line to be the coach of the 2024 U.S. Olympic women's basketball team.

The 55-year-old Reeve, an assistant on gold medal-winning Olympic teams in 2016 and 2021, was named coach of the U.S. women's national team Wednesday at a Target Center news conference.

Reeve will head the USA teams at the 2022 FIBA World Cup Qualifying Tournament, 2022 FIBA World Cup, the 2023-24 Olympic Qualifying Tournament and, if the United States qualifies, the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris.

The U.S. women's team has qualified for every Olympics, won seven consecutive gold medals and also won 55 straight games in Olympic competition.

Reeve has coached the Lynx since 2010, winning titles in 2011, 2013, 2015 and 2017. She is also the team's general manager, and was WNBA executive of the year in 2019. She is 267-127 in 12 seasons, and is a three-time league coach of the year, including during the COVID-19 shortened 2020 season when all games were played at a common site in Orlando.

After the Team USA won its seventh consecutive Olympic gold medal this summer, Dawn Staley told the media in Tokyo that she was done as the head coach and that Reeve would be a logical successor.

Reeve said then she loved her experience with University of Connecticut coach Geno Auriemma in Rio de Janeiro in 2016 and with Staley in Tokyo. She was been able to experience winning gold medals with so many of her own players — Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore, Seimone Augustus and Sylvia Fowles were on the 2016 team, Fowles and Napheesa Collier this year.

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about the writer

Kent Youngblood

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Kent Youngblood has covered sports for the Minnesota Star Tribune for more than 20 years.

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