COLUMBIA — After spending two weeks watching some of America's most talented female athletes like Simone Biles, A'ja Wilson, Katie Ledecky and Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone win gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, South Carolina women's basketball coach Dawn Staley reminded everyone that female athletes succeeding at the highest level isn't a recent trend.

Staley, appearing on MSNBC's "Morning Joe" on Thursday, was asked where she thinks the increase in viewership and sponsorships is coming from, and where she thinks it's going.

"I don't think it's a fad," Staley said. "I think women's sports has been held back for a very long time and now we're at a place where we're in high demand. There's room for everybody but in a way in which where we have to do it strategically where it makes sense. I'm glad we are in this place, I do think that it's a movement that people are joining in on. I'm on Morning Joe, I watch Morning Joe every morning but I never would have imagined I'd be on the show."

On Sunday, the U.S women's basketball team's gold medal game against France drew 7.8 million viewers on NBC and Peacock, a record for the women's team in the Olympics. Wilson, Staley's former star center at South Carolina, won Olympics MVP along with her second career gold medal. If she gets one more in 2028, she'll be equal with Staley, who won three gold medals in 1996, 2000 and 2004.

This was not the first time Staley was asked about the growth of women's sports. When Wilson and her WNBA team the Las Vegas Aces played a preseason game at Colonial Life Arena on May 11, Staley emphasized that merging the women's college basketball space and WNBA could be highly beneficial for viewership and expansion.

WHO DID STALEY MEET IN PARIS: Here's every celebrity South Carolina's Dawn Staley met, posted picture with during Paris Olympics

"It should happen more often, you just have to get the financial backing," Staley said on May 10. "If we want to grow the game, somebody should find the funding because it's beautiful, the turnout is going to be great, the talent, the coaching, the atmosphere will be great and it's what our sport needs."

Lulu Kesin covers South Carolina athletics for The Greenville News and the USA TODAY Network. Email her at lkesin@gannett.com and follow her on X, formerly known as Twitter, @Lulukesin

This article originally appeared on Greenville News: What Dawn Staley said about women's sports on MSNBC's 'Morning Joe'