States women's U18 team which won the gold medal at the FIBA Americas Championship in Mar Del Plata, Argentina. The event was held in July 2000, when Team USA defeated Cuba to win the championship. In the closest match of the tournament, the semifinal game against Brazil, Taurasi connected on seven of her eleven three-point attempts and ended the game with 26 points. She averaged 12.6 points per game and led the team with assists with 5.46 per game. Taurasi has also earned a bronze medal as a member of the 2001 U.S. junior World Championship team, and a gold medal as a member of the 2000 U.S. Women's junior World Championship qualifying team. On May 12, 2004, Taurasi was selected to compete at the 2004 Olympics in Athens, Greece with the United States national team. She helped Team USA capture the gold medal, defeating Australia in the championship game. Taurasi represented the United States as a member of the 2008 Olympic team at the 2008 Summer Games in Beijing, China, where she started all eight games and helped lead the USA to the gold medal. Taurasi was the second leading scorer on the U.S. national basketball team at the 2006 FIBA World Championship held in São Paulo, Brazil. The Americans earned the bronze medal. Taurasi was invited to the USA Basketball women's national team training camp in the fall of 2009. The team selected to participate at the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the 2012 Olympics was primarily chosen from these players. At the conclusion of the training camp, the team traveled to Ekaterinburg, Russia, where they competed in the 2009 UMMC Ekaterinburg International Invitational. Taurasi was named as one of the national team members to represent the U.S. national team in the WNBA versus USA Basketball. This game replaces the WNBA All-Star game with WNBA All-Stars versus USA Basketball, as part of the preparation for the FIBA World Championship for Women to be held in the Czech Republic during September and October 2010. Taurasi was selected to be a member of the national team for the World Championships. The team was coached by Geno Auriemma. Because many team members were still playing in the WNBA until just prior to the event, the team had only one day of practice with the entire team before leaving for Ostrava and Karlovy Vary. Even with limited practice, the team managed to