Olympians are accustomed to clearing hurdles, but 3x3 team the Gangurrus – having become the first Australian team in the fledgling basketball offshoot to make it to the Olympics – are aiming for more than just the podium.

They want to challenge the stigma around same-sex partners playing together. Find a viable path through the still-financially fraught world of women’s sport. Win an Olympics medal from the field of eight despite their world ranking of 29.

But most of all, the Gangurrus – a name that applies to both the men’s and women’s 3x3 teams, taken from the Guugu Yimithirr word for the eastern grey kangaroo – want to lift an emerging sport into the Australian spotlight.

“There are massive dunks and big game winners, it’s all over within 10 minutes and then you’re on to the next game: it’s so digestible and really marketable,” says Anneli Maley, former WNBL MVP and Gangurru. “I just think that Australia needs to jump on board with the rest of the world.”

The concept of 3x3 (pronounced “three-ex-three”) has emerged in the past two decades, and gained momentum when in 2017 it was added to the Tokyo Olympics program. European and Asian countries have been early adopters, and the US is quickly catching up.

In the three-on-three variant, traditional two-pointers are worth one, and shots from outside the arc are worth two. Apart from a time-out or out-of-bounds, the game is continuous. Maley says, compared to the traditional five-on-five basketball format, “it’s a faster-paced game, because there’s a 12-second shot clock [compared to 24 seconds in five-on-five] and it’s a race to 21 points.”

Maley’s teammate, Marena Whittle, likens the sport to the “UFC of basketball” and says it has a reputation among five-on-five players as “very intense and highly physical”. Whereas five-on-five is characterised by sharp bursts in plays often called by coaches, 3x3 stretches the physical and mental limits of players.

“You’re more reliant on your teammates because you don’t have a coach out there with you,” Maley says. “You’re really just like in the trenches with your team.”

Maley – who has a prominent podcast and is one of the most recognisable faces of Australian basketball – and Whittle have been partners of five years. They have sought to use their profile to challenge some of society’s more conservative notions.

“There’s such a stigma that you can’t play with your partner, especially in women’s basketball. I did an interview and someone’s like, ‘how often do you argue?’ and we don’t,” Maley says. “She’s my teammate, when we’re on the court I’m a professional athlete, and so is she.”

The pair, alongside teammates Lauren Mansfield and Ally Wilson, defied expectations to triumph in an Olympic qualification tournament in Japan in May. The Gangurrus lost their first match to the Netherlands in overtime, but rallied with four straight wins, including two victories over Canada, an imposing side ranked fifth in the world.

The 30-year-old Whittle – who plays five-on-five professionally in Europe – says she feels it’s important to share their personal story. “Growing up, in the Opals or even in WNBL teams, I never really heard of couples, like visible couples,” she says. “There were no role models to say that it could work and was healthy and was supportive.”

As women’s sport has grown in popularity, the personal lives of its stars – especially those in football – have become of interest to tabloid media. Whittle says even gossip-style coverage of same-sex couples, as long as it doesn’t overly encroach personal lives and damage individuals’ reputations, is positive for drawing attention to women’s sport.

And she thinks these sporting stories also have the ability to normalise queer relationships. “If it was flipped on its head, and it was about the men, it would be something really awesome to talk about if guys are openly gay and having relationships with each other and dating, but we’re not seeing that yet,” she says.

Whittle is midway through a law degree, and has made a point of including a clause in her five-on-five club contracts that allows her to take leave for 3x3 commitments. Many of her opponents do not have the same need to carve out the time.

“Half of the teams that are going to the Olympics, their squads don’t play five-on-five at all professionally because they’re supported [financially],” Whittle says. “Their countries just have so much funding into their programs and they’re playing year round.”

The 25-year-old Maley – who remains one of the WNBL’s best and still has ambitions to play again for the Opals – says investment from federations and commercial partners in this emerging form of basketball makes sense. “In this day and age, where people’s attention spans are so limited, here you have a perfect format of a 10-minute game where highlights are encouraged.”

The pace of 3x3 may be unrelenting, but so too is life off the court. Whittle is leaving her team Estudiantes in Spain for another European outfit still to be announced. Maley has just re-signed with the Perth Lynx in the WNBL, days after the league’s acquisition by the investment group of Tesla chair Robyn Denholm and the Australian men’s competition the NBL.

Add to all that the Gangurrus’ first Olympics appearance, and wedding plans have taken a back seat. “I hope it doesn’t go on forever,” Whittle says. “Hopefully we’ll just get it done.”