Release from USC
South Carolina women’s basketball head coach Dawn Staley earned a spot in the Icon portion of the inaugural TIME100 Sports list, recognizing 100 of the most influential figures shaping the global sports landscape. South Carolina alumna A’ja Wilson was listed in the same section of the list, which was released today.
Staley has followed a playing career that earned her spots in the Naismith Basketball Hall of Fame, the FIBA Hall of Fame and the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame with a coaching career that should land her in some combination of those hallowed halls again. In addition to her 26-year coaching career in college, she also became the first black head coach of the USA Basketball Women’s Senior National Team, leading that group to an historic seventh-consecutive Olympic gold medal in the 2020 Tokyo Games after collecting gold in the 2018 FIBA World Cup and the 2019 FIBA AmeriCup.
At the college level, Staley’s .779 winning percentage (683-194) of her 26 seasons ranks seventh among active NCAA coaches with at least 10 years of experience, and that number comes in 10th all-time among NCAA head coaches. She is one of five head coaches with at least three women’s basketball National Championships and the only Black basketball head coach with multiple national titles.
In her 18 seasons at the helm of South Carolina’s program, the Gamecocks are 511-114 (.818) overall and 229-57 (.800) in the vaunted SEC with three National Championships, 10 SEC regular-season titles and nine SEC Tournament crowns. South Carolina’s eight trips to the NCAA Final Four have all come in the last 11 seasons and include a current run of six consecutive appearances, which is the second-longest streak in tournament history. The program’s 268 straight weeks in the AP Top 25 is the sixth-longest in the history of the poll and include 86 weeks at No. 1, which is the third-most in that poll’s history.
Staley has been named the national coach of the year five times, and she is the first men’s or women’s coach to claim Naismith Coach of the Year honors in three straight seasons 2022-24. She is a seven-time SEC Coach of the Year with her 229 SEC wins coming in as the third most by a head coach in conference history. She is the only league coach with multiple 16-0 undefeated seasons in the SEC as the Gamecocks have hit that mark four times.
A dream merchant for her players, Staley has coached two National Players of the Year, two National Defensive Players of the Year and a Freshman of the Year. She has helped 16 Gamecocks collect 32 All-America selections, three to pick up seven SEC Player of the Year honors, five to earn SEC Defensive Player of the Year recognition a total of nine times, three to SEC Sixth Player of the Year honors and six to capture SEC Freshman of the Year. Since her first Gamecock was selected in the 2015 WNBA Draft, a total of 21 South Carolina alums have been chosen, which is the second-most of any program in that timeframe. Of those 21, 13 have been first-round picks, highlighted by two No. 1 overall picks since 2018. Three Gamecocks have been named WNBA Rookie of the Year.
Staley is recognized for her work beyond basketball, and her leadership in the community continues to yield accolades. In 2023, the City of Columbia announced plans to erect a statue of Staley, which was installed in April 2025 on Senate Street a short distance from the Gamecocks’ home arena to honor her commitment to leadership, community empowerment and uplifting future generations as much as her coaching legacy. Her autobiography Uncommon Favor: Basketball, North Philly, My Mother and the Life Lessons I Learned from All Three was published in May 2025 and became a New York Times bestseller, rising to No. 2 on the Combined Print and E-Book Nonfiction list shortly after it was published. In April 2026, Staley became one of the rare sports figures elected to the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, which recognizes leaders in academia, the arts, industry, journalism, philanthropy, policy, research and science. She was selected in the scientific, cultural and nonprofit leadership category.
Explore the complete TIME100 Sports list at ti.me/100sports. The TIME100 Sports list will appear in the June 22, 2026, issue of TIME, available on newsstands on Fri., July 12.