Canada, Australia will always have Paris

Olympic pool draws pair men’s and women’s teams

The Canadian men’s basketball team knows only half of its firstround opposition at the 2024 Paris Olympics. The women know they will be in a dogfight at the Summer Games starting in late July.

Canada’s men’s team, in its first Olympics appearance since 2000, was drawn into a first-round qualifying pool with Australia and two teams that will survive last-chance qualifications in early July.

The winners of tournaments in Spain — a group comprised of Spain, Poland, Finland, Lebanon, Bahamas and Angola — and in Greece — where Greece, Slovenia, Dominican Republic, New Zealand, Egypt and Croatia will play — will make up the first-round pool for the Canadian men in Paris.

The other men’s groups: France, Japan, Germany and a qualifier from a tournament in Latvia; and Serbia, South Sudan, the United States and a qualifier from an event in Puerto Rico.

The Canadian women know their full first-round group and it’s daunting. They will face perennial world powers Australia and

France, along with Nigeria.

“The three rivals are very good,” Canadian coach Victor Lapeña said in an interview Tuesday. “Australia?

Best in Oceania,

France is the host so they will be very happy and Nigeria is going to be difficult because Africa is doing a great job.

“We have to beat two of them in the moment to be in the quarterfinals — that is the goal — and then who knows.”

The other women’s draws: Serbia, Spain, China and Puerto Rico in one group, and Germany, United States, Japan and Belgium in another.

The Canadian women will finalize their roster in early July before playing an exhibition series in Europe.

“I don’t want to put pressure on the players or pressure on the team, I want us to enjoy the process,” Lapeña said. “We want to create not just a team with the best players but a team with good players, good culture and good teammates.”

The women qualified for a fourth straight Games despite stumbling at the Olympic qualifiers and getting some help from a Spain victory over Hungary.

Kia Nurse is expected to be healthy this time after missing the qualifier and young forward Aaliyah Edwards will be free of school commitments.

“I think we’ll be better than (the qualifier in) Hungary, we will compete, you see, I feel very good,” Lapeña said. “I think if we are all healthy, Canada has something special, something in that special moment.”

It is the second Olympics being played with three four-team groups, a switch from what had been a traditional split of two sixteam groups.

The top two teams in each group in the preliminary round advance to the quarterfinals along with the two best third-place teams.

That brings the capricious aspect of points differential into play. Getting into a first-round pool with a truly weak team is advantageous.

The format limits the number of games medal teams play in the tournament to six. Teams had to play eight games to win medals before the Tokyo Games. Fewer games and more days off will make it less taxing on NBA players coming off their long season.

The Canadian women know their full first-round group and it’s daunting: perennial world powers Australia and France, along with Nigeria