[Card10Fan]

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The 1996 WBB Olympic team.  Tara, Azzi and Steding

Just finished watching the three episodes - what an amazing behind-the-scenes look at that arduous odyssey to the gold medal. In a review in the Athletic, the director shares: There’s one story that didn’t end up making the film. It was the hardest cut we had to make. It was a story that Tara told us about a year to the date from the Olympic gold-medal game. After she went for a jog, she was in the shower and had a panic attack. She literally had to get out of the shower because she couldn’t breathe. She was worried about, what if I fail my country? What if we don’t pull this off? She wrote on a piece of paper, ‘I am Tara VanDerveer. I am the best coach in the country. We will win gold.’ From that point forward, she said she literally never had a single ounce of doubt. She believed in her philosophy, which was all business.” I wish they had kept that in because the first episode was pretty unflattering of Tara, including the infamous spat over Rebecca Lobo's selection to the team (Tara’s advocacy for bringing Venus Lacy onto the squad is vindicated in the gold medal game). Glad they found the footage to tell the story more fully, all these years later. 

I finally found  time to watch and I thought the episodes were great. It was all very insightful and fun to hear the many stories from various individuals including Tara. I agree that Tara is not shown in the best light especially early on in the first episode. She was under tremendous pressure to win and was characterized as only concerned with winning and not caring about any of the players as individual people. Winning was all that mattered and she would go to extreme measures/training to ensure that happened. I don't think that is Tara Vanderveer the coach today. Tara was candid back then and it seemed more media savy. She's a lot more guarded today with reporters and less forthcoming. I'd assume she's changed some from lessons learned coaching that Olympic Team. I'd encourage everyone to watch if they haven't. I

[Card10Fan]

[tweet]https://twitter.com/espn_womenhoop/status/1533836177635262467?s=21&t=UcYN52FE7Km6_CynS_uzyA[/tweet]

The 1996 WBB Olympic team.  Tara, Azzi and Steding

Just finished watching the three episodes - what an amazing behind-the-scenes look at that arduous odyssey to the gold medal. In a review in the Athletic, the director shares: There’s one story that didn’t end up making the film. It was the hardest cut we had to make. It was a story that Tara told us about a year to the date from the Olympic gold-medal game. After she went for a jog, she was in the shower and had a panic attack. She literally had to get out of the shower because she couldn’t breathe. She was worried about, what if I fail my country? What if we don’t pull this off? She wrote on a piece of paper, ‘I am Tara VanDerveer. I am the best coach in the country. We will win gold.’ From that point forward, she said she literally never had a single ounce of doubt. She believed in her philosophy, which was all business.” I wish they had kept that in because the first episode was pretty unflattering of Tara, including the infamous spat over Rebecca Lobo's selection to the team (Tara’s advocacy for bringing Venus Lacy onto the squad is vindicated in the gold medal game). Glad they found the footage to tell the story more fully, all these years later. 

I finally found  time to watch and I thought the episodes were great. It was all very insightful and fun to hear the many stories from various individuals including Tara. I agree that Tara is not shown in the best light especially early on in the first episode. She was under tremendous pressure to win and was characterized as only concerned with winning and not caring about any of the players as individual people. Winning was all that mattered and she would go to extreme measures/training to ensure that happened. I don't think that is Tara Vanderveer the coach today. Tara was candid back then and it seemed more media savy. She's a lot more guarded today with reporters and less forthcoming. I'd assume she's changed some from lessons learned coaching that Olympic Team. I'd encourage everyone to watch if they haven't. I