Duke‘s Kara Lawson has been named the next head coach of the United States women’s basketball team.
Lawson, who was an assistant coach on the 2024 gold-medal-winning national team and a gold medalist as a player in 2008, will lead the U.S. at all major competitions leading into the 2028 Summer Games in Los Angeles.
“To win a gold medal as a player was amazing, and one of the earliest goals that I set out when I was young,” Lawson told ESPN. “I think that is what drives you because you know how great that feels and you want the players you coach to experience that. You get to have this permanent memory in your sport and so the goal is to try to help them create that for themselves at the different world events.”