WONDER WOMEN
Women’s team confident combination of savvy vets, speedy youth can compete
Canada’s team in Rio is 60 per cent female, including our best medal hopes, such as Kia Nurse in basketball, Jen Kish in rugby and Brianne Theisen-Eaton in heptathlon. Stories,
A “composed confidence” is how Lizanne Murphy puts it, a deep-rooted belief and well-proven fact that the Canadian women’s team feels it belongs in the conversation about the very best teams in the world.
It has been building for years, a rise to prominence built on the foundation laid by seven women who are now two-time Olympians, augmented by a skilled group of youngsters who have infused the team with speed and athleticism.
They are far from cocky — humble is their collective style, no braggadocio, actions speaking volumes, few words necessary — but still . . . “We now know that we are good and we can play with the best in the world,” said Murphy, the veteran forward from Beaconsfield, Que. “I think we’re going in with a composed confidence.”
The women head into their second straight Olympics with legitimate medal aspirations after a four-year run marked by consistent improvement internationally.
They were in the top eight at the 2012 London Games — the first time the program had been in the Olym- pics in a dozen years — and followed that with a fifth-place showing at the 2014 world championships. They were unbeaten in Canada last summer, following a Pan Am Games gold medal by winning the FIBA Americas Olympic qualifier, all further proof to themselves that they belong and can challenge for a Rio medal.
“It’s more of an edge now,” centre Natalie Achonwa, of Guelph, said. “We’ve always had that get-downand-dirty, fight-no-matter-what idea. But now we have the confidence to go with it. We can see that the work that we put in brings results, and I believe that’s where our confidence comes from.”
The team’s strength is not only its depth — it’s not unusual for all 12 women to play in a game and few log more than 25 minutes a night — but it’s experience.
Murphy, Achonwa, Kim Gaucher, Shona Thorburn, Miranda Ayim, Michelle Plouffe and Tamara Tatham are all holdovers from the 2012 Olympic and 2014 world championship teams. The first time Olympians: Kia Nurse, Miah-Marie Langlois, Nirra Fields, Katherine Plouffe and Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe.
It is exactly the same roster that qualified for Rio last summer.
“Any time you can have more time, more experience playing together, that’s going to generate better chemistry and cohesion,” coach Lisa Thomaidis said. “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.”
The London team four years ago had moments where it looked seasoned and that it belonged, but having qualified about a month before the Olympics and with no sense of what they were about to face, there were key moments in every game when they appeared overwhelmed.
“Everything was new, we had qualified five weeks before and everything was so crazy, this crazy whirlwind,” Murphy said. “After each game we lost by so few points, it was like ‘Argh, we’re right there, oh my gosh.’ The thing that you felt right after the Olympics was that it was such a lost opportunity, we were so much better than we thought.”
Canada is in a first-round group with the United States, Spain, Serbia, China and Senegal with the top four teams advancing to knockout quarter-finals. It’s a beneficial draw in that it means they won’t have to face prohibitive favourite Americans in the cross-over first medal round game, which kept Canada out of the medal hunt in London.
“Oh, we want a medal,” Achonwa said. “I’ve proudly said that to anyone who’s asked me. We want a medal. In 2012, we were happy and excited to be there. But with the time and prep we’ve put in the past four years, we have a goal to win a medal.”