Team Canada unveils women’s Olympic basketball roster
Meet your Olympians, Canada.
Team Canada’s women’s basketball squad unveiled their roster on Tuesday and it featured more WNBA talent than it ever has before.
The team qualified for the Olympics after a tight finish at an Olympic Qualification Tournament back in February. It will be their fourth-straight appearance at the Olympics and eighth overall.
Headlining the team will be promising rookie star Aaliyah Edwards from the Washington Mystics and veteran Kia Nurse of the Los Angeles Sparks. Joining those two from the WNBA will be Bridget Carleton of the Minnesota Lynx and Laeticia Amihere of the Atlanta Dream.
Those four players will join the team later in July when the league goes on an international break.
As a whole though, there are seven players with WNBA experience, as Kayla Alexander, Natalie Achonwa and Nields Fields have all had stints in the league.
“It’s always an incredible honour to represent my country at an Olympic Games,” said Achonwa, team co-captain, in a statement from Canada Basketball. “Regardless of the tournament or competition, the pride I feel putting on a Canada jersey is always the same. And knowing this is my last time in that jersey, I want to cherish every second of this journey. As a team, our focus and messaging have been the same all quad. We’re all invested in the grind and putting in the work together now to be our absolute best when the lights come on in Paris.”
There are also four players set to make their Olympic debuts: Yvonne Ejim, Sami Hill, Cassandre Prosper and Syla Swords.
Here is the full roster headed to Paris:
Natalie Achonwa, F — Guelph, Ont.
Kayla Alexander, C — Milton, Ont.
Laeticia Amihere, F — Mississauga, Ont.
Bridget Carleton, F — Chatham, Ont.
Shay Colley, G — Brampton, Ont.
Aaliyah Edwards, F — Kingston, Ont.
Yvonne Ejim, F — Calgary, Alta.
Nirra Fields, G — Montreal, Que.
Sami Hill, G — Toronto, Ont.
Kia Nurse, G — Hamilton, Ont.
Cassandre Prosper, G — Montreal, Que.
Syla Swords, G — Sudbury, Ont.
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