MIES (Switzerland) - Women's Olympic Basketball Tournaments never fail to capture the imagination of fans and when the world's best players show up to play, they always turn in memorable performances.

It's been almost 45 years since the very first women's basketball tournament at the Summer Games.

In celebration of International Women's Day, we look back at the first time women basketball players graced the Olympic stage.

It was in 1976, in Montreal, Canada, and the Soviet Union, the dominant team in women's basketball at the time, marched to the gold medal while being led by their FIBA Hall of Fame center, Uljana Semjonova.

The Latvian tower of power was virtually unstoppable, averaging more than 19 points per game. She was especially superior in her team's game against the United States, leading the way with 32 points and 19 rebounds in the 112-77 Soviet Union triumph.

Semjonova, now 68, helped cement her status as one of the greatest players in the history of the game in Montreal. In her national team career, she claimed two Olympic gold medals, three world titles and 10 European Championship crowns.

FIBA Hall of Fame Center Semjonova was a star attraction on the court and in the Olympic Village

The Soviets, who also had outstanding talents like Tatyana Ovechkina, Nadezhda Shuvayeva-Olkhova and Olga Leonidovna Sukharnova in that Olympic gold medal run, won all five of their games and left no doubt that they remained the supreme force in women's basketball. The USSR had not lost a major international game since 1958 so their success did not come as a surprise.

The Montreal Games had icons on other teams that reached the podium as well. One of the players in the USA side that claimed the silver medal was the late Pat Summitt, whose fame grew even more as the finest American women's coach of her era.

The USA had greats like Ann Meyers, Lusia Harris, Nancy Lieberman and Pat Summitt 

Summitt ended up not only turning the Tennessee Lady Volunteers into one of the best teams in college basketball but she also took the reins of the USA and coached the Olympic team to the gold medal at the Los Angeles Games in 1984. The first USA Olympic team in 1976 had outstanding center Lusia Harris, who led the team in scoring, as well as Ann Myers and Nancy Lieberman.

Even Bulgaria had one of their legendary sports greats in their team that claimed the bronze medal in national team captain, the late Penka Stoyanova.

In wins over Czechoslovakia and Japan by a combined four points that Bulgaria needed to reach the podium, Stoyanova led the way with 17 and 25 points, respectively. At 19.4 points per game, Stoyanova and Semjonova were the joint second leading scorers of the tournament after Japan's Keiko Namai (20.4).

FIBA