COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. -- She has known for a long time that she would very likely be one, but Utah's Natalie Williams has finally officially been selected by USA Basketball as one of the 10-member 1999-2000 national team that will train for the Sydney Olympics next year.
The U.S. team is the defending Olympic gold-medalist. Williams was the final cut for the '96 team, but she was a member of the 1998 U.S. World Championship gold-medal team.The team will train together and compete in a series of exhibition games against several international and NCAA teams. The 2000 Olympics will be held Sept. 16 through Oct. 1, in Sydney.
The first action for the team will be the U.S. Olympic Cup Sept. 9-12, part of a multisport event hosted by the Americans at Cal-San Diego. The European-champion Poland team with Margo Dydek and Krystyna Lara, Williams' Utah Starzz teammates, is part of the four-team basketball competition.
Also named to the U.S. team are Ruthie Bolton-Holifield and Yolanda Griffith of the Sacramento Monarchs, Cynthia Cooper of Houston, Chamique Holdsclaw and Nikki McCray of Washington's Mystics, Lisa Leslie and DeLisha Milton of the Los Angeles Sparks, Dawn Staley of the Charlotte Sting and Katie Smith of the Minnesota Lynx.