Doug Smith
Medal chase begins for women’s basketball team,
Every day it drove her, through every arduous rehabilitation session, in France and in Canada. Day after difficult day it kept her sane, focused and working.
Lizanne Murphy will step onto an Olympic basketball court again Saturday (1:15 p.m. ET), wearing Canada’s red and white with the pride she speaks so eloquently about any time playing for her country comes up and she will be emotional and so, so happy.
Murphy tore a knee ligament dur- ing her professional season in France last December. It could have been a crippling blow to her dreams of playing in her second Olympics and she worried she wouldn’t make it back.
“Yeah, like every day,” said the 32year-old from Beaconsfield, Que.
Murphy and six of her teammates — Kim Gaucher, Shona Thorburn, Natalie Achonwa, Miranda Ayim, Tamara Tatham and Michelle Plouffe — will be making their second Olympic appearance when Canada faces China at the Youth Arena in the Rio suburb of Deodoro.
Canada is seen as a legitimate medal contender coming off a fifth-place finish at the 2014 world championships and a quarter-final berth in the 2012 London Olympics. The more veteran members of the team are trying to continue a legacy they saw developing a decade and a half ago. Canada’s team was in the 2000 Sydney Games, and many of the women used that as a springboard for their careers.
They know any success they have here could have a similar trickledown effect.
“The older ones of us remember watching the 2000 Olympic team in Sydney, and I remember watching on TV and saying, ‘wow, that’s where I want to be, what I want to do, what I want to accomplish’ and that became my dream,” said Thorburn, a 33year-old Hamilton native. “I hope, as basketball players, we inspire the next generation because we’re going to be passing the baton on to these wonderful women who are playing for the provinces.
“I hope younger generations in all sports — especially basketball — watch us compete in Rio and see how much passion we have, how much we enjoy playing with each other.”
For Murphy, a six-foot-one forward, the opportunity only arose because of what she said was first-class treatment on two continents.
“Injury in December and playing again at the highest stage by August is pretty fast-track,” she said. “I had literally the best services available to me both in France and in Canada. I was flying home once a month to change my program. This was the ideal way to treat an injury. If you have unlimited resources, that’s how you should do it.” Canada’s medal chase begins against a familiar foe; they’ve beaten China four times already this summer. One of those games was during an early exhibition tour of Europe. Three other wins came during a series of games in Edmonton.
Canada finished its preparation a week ago by beating France after losses to Australia and the United States.
China, Senegal, Serbia, Spain and the U.S. are in Canada’s preliminaryround group.