3x3 Basketball Medalist Allisha Gray Knew She Wouldn't 'Come Back Empty-Handed' from Tokyo

Photo: Stephen Gosling/NBAE via Getty Images

Allisha Gray has made her mark on the WNBA — and now, on the Olympics too.

“I feel great,” Gray, 26, tells PEOPLE. “I’m very excited. [It’s] definitely an honor to win a gold medal. I didn’t travel all the way to Tokyo to come back empty-handed, regardless of the medal. But my main goal was not to come back with anything less than a gold medal. So to be able to accomplish that was pretty awesome.”

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The U.S. women’s 3x3 basketball team.Christian Petersen/Getty Images

Of course, there’s a lot of pressure that comes with competing on the world stage, which Gray, a South Carolina native, says can feel like you’re “basically in like a fishbowl.”

“If you do something and mess up, it’d be elevated 10 times more than if a normal person was to do the same thing,” she explains to PEOPLE. “So … whenever I get overwhelmed with stuff, I just call my parents and they talk to me and calm me down and just know where I’m at.”

Continues the athlete, “It’s an honor and a privilege that I’m on a high platform and that I’m able to use it for certain things, like being able to use my voice to speak out.”

Gray is a Nike athlete, and tells PEOPLE she’s so grateful for the “support system” the company provides for female athletes and through their championing of women’s sports. In just the past few months, Nike has welcomed seven new Nike athletes into the WNBA.

“And they kept me looking nice. Made sure my feet were comfortable, making sure I had everything, and I was good and ready to go for the Olympics, " she adds.

“Raising the bar at the highest level is what they do. They’ve done it consistently over 25 years. Now you’re out of excuses for not paying attention,” said Nike. “Congratulations to the USA Basketball Women’s National Team on bringing home the program’s 7th straight Olympic Gold Medal and continuing to represent the best of us.”

source: people.com