Canada's women's basketball team approaching Olympic qualifier with level of naiveté
CBC
They've appeared in travel vlogs, and they've learned that you'd better do something interesting in the first three seconds of a TikTok video, or else no one will watch.
As the Canadian women's basketball team settles in Sopron, Hungary, for its Olympic qualifying tournament, its veterans are leaning on the younger players as much as the opposite is true.
"[Head coach] Victor [Lapeña] said something that I really took to heart the other day," three-time Olympian Natalie Achonwa said.
"He mentioned that sometimes the naive approach of having someone like Syla [Swords], who's a high school student that hasn't been in any of these pressure situations, adds a little bit of lightness and fun to the group."
It is Swords who has documented the team's travels, including its recent one-hour bus ride from training camp in Vienna to Sopron where players were surprised with new headphones.
But while her new toy remains in its box, the 18-year-old may be subject to the music stylings of the 31-year-old mom Achonwa.
"We each bring something different," Nirra Fields, the 30-year-old two-time Olympian, said. "Whether it be off the court where I'm with Syla and Yvonne [Ejim] and they're into the TikTok world, knowing more about that and seeing how they interact with TikTok and social media is super interesting. Or with Natalie and she's like old school R&B, hip hop, the music we play and stuff like that."
Canada, ranked fifth worldwide by FIBA, faces a pressure-packed weekend in which three games will determine its Olympic fate. They'll face No. 19 Hungary, No. 4 Spain and No. 9 Japan in that order over Thursday (1 p.m. ET), Friday (9:30 a.m. ET) and Sunday (9 a.m. ET), with the top three teams of the round robin booking their ticket to Paris.
WATCH | Achonwa, Fields, Lapeña discuss Olympic qualifier:
The full 12-person roster was announced on Tuesday, with Kia Nurse a notable omission due to a minor injury suffered in training camp. Nurse will still be present on the sidelines at the games throughout the tournament.
Canada will lean on its depth and versatility to make up for the loss of a key player and former WNBA all-star.
"The young girls bring the energy, they bring the spark. The older vets bring the IQ, maybe more calm pace. So it's like really beautiful to see the mix of everything," Fields said.
Then there are players in their prime such as Bridget Carleton, who just re-signed on a two-year deal with the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx and was named to the all-tournament team as Canada placed fourth at the 2022 World Cup.
Team captain Achonwa, Fields, Kayla Alexander and Shay Colley make up the veteran core.
