So, what does become of a dream deferred?

Anyone who knows anything about women's basketball understands how profoundly important the Olympics are to the players. Until the ABL and WNBA made their appearance (and stuck around), being on the National team was not only the highest honor an American player could seek, but it provided them with an opportunity to remind friends, family and the rest of the United States that, yes, women do play basketball after college.

In that light, one can only imagine how the members of the 1980 team felt when President Jimmy Carter ordered a boycott of the Olympics after the Soviet Union, the host country, invaded Afghanistan.

In 2005, Christine Brennan wrote a piece for USA Today titled, "25 years later, Olympic boycott gnaws at athletes:"

You've probably never heard of [swimmer] Craig Beardsley. How could you have? As he says, "1980 was one of those aberrations in time that we just happened to get stuck in." He didn't go to the Olympics, never won the gold medal that certainly could have been his, never reaped the benefits that could have been coming to a U.S. swimmer winning a big race behind the Iron Curtain. He says there is no way to know if he would have won an Olympic gold medal in Moscow on July 20, 1980, the day his race was held, but we do know that on July 30, 1980, he set the world record at the U.S. nationals, swimming a second and a half faster than Sergei Fesenko of the Soviet Union, who won the Olympic gold medal in Moscow.

Why the flashback? Well, today's news brought the following release from the US Olympic Committee:

Twenty-seven years after Congress authorized President Jimmy Carter to present a congressional medal to the 461 athletes of the 1980 United States Olympic Team, the medal has now been confirmed as being the highest civilian honor that can be bestowed by Congress. Until this recent designation, the medals awarded to the 1980 Olympic Team have been denied full recognition due to a technicality in production.

Amongt those who will receive the Congressional Gold Medal:

• Carol Blazejowski, Montclair State Col.
• Denise Curry, UCLA
• Anne Donovan, Old Dominion
• Tara Heiss, Maryland
• Kris Kirchner, Maryland
• Debra Miller, Boston Univ.
• Cindy Noble, Tennessee
• LaTaunya Pollard, Long Beach State
• Jill Rankin, Tennessee
• Rosie Walker, Stephen F. Austin State
• Holly Warlick, Tennessee
• Lynette Woodard, Kansas
  
  HEAD COACH: Sue Gunter, Stephen F. Austin State University
  ASSISTANT COACH: Pat Head, University of Tennessee
  MANAGER: Betty Jo Graber, Weathersford College (TX)