OPINION: Canadian Women’s Basketball Team Could Medal In Rio

The Canadian women’s basketball team qualified for its sixth Olympics in Rio. It’s rare that any Canadian teams qualify for the Olympics, the most number of teams sent was nine to the 1976 Montreal Olympics when Canadian teams were guaranteed a birth. This year’s women’s basketball team has beaten China and Serbia in the preliminaries to place second in their group behind the USA. Since the 2012 Olympics in London the team has continued to improve in international competition.

In 2014 the team placed fifth at the World Championships and in 2015 the won the Pan Am Games in Toronto and the FIBA Americas World Championship and the latter qualified them for the Olympics in Rio.

There is a mix of veterans and first-time Olympians on this senior national team. There are seven veterans including forwards Lizanne Murphy, Natalie Achonwa, Miranda Ayim, Michelle Plouffe, Tamara Tatham and guards Kim Gaucher, Shona Thorburn. Achonwa plays in the WNBA for the Indiana Fever and has six years of experience with the national team. Murphy, Ayim, Plouffe, Gaucher and Thorburn all play professionally in France and Tatham plays professionally in Russia. Gaucher has been with the national team for 15 years, Plouffe has been with the team for seven and the rest of the vets have been on the squad for 11 years. For this group this is their second Olympics together.

The newbies on the Olympic circuit are Kia Nurse, Miah-Marie Langlois, Nirra Fields, Katherine Plouffe and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe. Nurse is going into her junior season at the University of Connecticut and is a two-time NCAA Champ. Langlois plays professionally in Russia, Fields is a free agent but played in the WNBA for the Phoenix Mercury last season, Plouffe plays professionally in France and Raincock-Ekunwe plays professionally in Australia. Not exactly what you would call ‘green’, the team has depth to it, but you get the idea.

One reason they have been so successful is that the team has had time to build chemistry and flow. The team that qualified for Rio last year is the same team that is playing in Rio now.

According to thestar.com Canadian head coach Lisa Thomaidis said that more time together definitely helps. “We have some very young players. Kia, four years ago, was a teenager still playing in high school. Every one of our players is a better individual player from last year, which then again makes our team that much better,” Thomaidis said.

The women’s basketball team qualified for the London Olympics five weeks before the Games started so the team didn’t really have enough time to practice together.

In the current Olympic schedule the top four teams in each group advance to the quarterfinals next week. Canada won’t have to worry about facing Team USA in the quarterfinals, which is important in Canada’s quest for a medal because they would likely have trouble with the 41-time Olympic basketball champs.

Canada has proven they can beat Serbia and China in their prelim group and Senegal is at the bottom of the pile losing mercilessly to the U.S. and China by 65 and 37 points respectively. The only team with a question mark is Spain. At the London Olympics Spain made it to the gold medal game against the USA, so they might be a team to watch out for.

The Australians consistently show well at the Olympics too. The Opals are in the Group A preliminaries and the 6’8” center Elizabeth Cambage is strong inside and difficult to defend. If the Canadians come across Australia they will have their work cut out for them.