Among the many challenges of playing sports at the highest level for your country — in addition to the long hours of training, the travel, the time away from family and the lives put on hold — is that even when you put everything into it, there is no guarantee of a storybook ending.
That’s what came to mind as I was watching the Canadian women’s basketball team stumble over and over again against Nigeria in what turned out to be the final game of its Olympic tournament. In the end, the women fell 79-70 to a team that seemed bigger, faster and stronger throughout its lineup. Canada finished group play 0-3, for the most part looking overwhelmed in losses to France and Australia before Sunday.
It’s the first time Canada has gone winless in pool play since 1996, and quite a step down for a program making a Canadian-record fourth consecutive Olympic appearance and only two years removed from a highwater mark fourth-place finish at the FIBA Basketball World Cup in 2022.
On Sunday, Canada was facing a tall task to keep its medal hopes alive and advance to the quarterfinals for the third time since 2012. The women needed to beat Nigeria by 26 points to advance outright or win by at least 10 and hope that France would win against Australia.
Instead they came out flat and, after brief second-quarter rally that saw them leading 41-37 going into the half, completely lost the plot in a miserable third quarter where they were outscored 23-5, mirroring their second-quarter meltdown in the opener against France, when they lost the game after giving up a 23-2 run.
In between there was some decent basketball — if you cancel out their two worst quarters, the Canadians actually had a slightly positive point differential in the other 100 minutes of play in France — but ultimately they were undone by a disappointing performance by their returning core from the World Cup.
Experience would theoretically be one of this team’s strengths, given how many of its key players could count multiple Olympic and World Cups runs on their résumés (18 Olympic appearances in total among eight players) but it didn’t pay dividends in France.
Kia Nurse, a three-time Olympian and one of four active WNBA players on the roster, was 0-of-9 from the floor against Nigeria while making three turnovers. Nurse — who led Canada in scoring in her first two Olympics appearances — finished the tournament shooting 7-for-32 from the floor (21.9 per cent) and 1-of-9 from three, while counting just one assist against eight turnovers.
Shay Colley was perhaps Canada’s most dynamic ball-handler at point guard, but the two-time Olympian made too many mistakes for someone in her position, full-stop. She had 11 turnovers against Nigeria, who play with an almost unmatchable physicality and intensity on defence, and had 22 turnovers for the tournament against just 10 assists. She scored the ball well — her 17 points against Nigeria led Canada — and made three steals of her own, but the nine turnovers she made against France in the opener and the giveaways against Nigeria were a big problem, obviously.
Natalie Achonwa played her typically high-IQ brand of basketball and was second in assists among regulars from her forward spot, but shot just 33 per cent from the floor for the tournament. Kayla Alexander was her steady self, for the most part, but struggled at times when teams put her into pick-and-roll actions, and wasn’t able to establish herself offensively on a regular basis. And while Bridget Carleton came closest to playing to her level — the Minnesota Lynx sharpshooter led Canada in scoring (13.4 points per game) and shot 39 per cent from three — she had her struggles against opponent’s speed on defence and made more turnovers (nine) than assists (six). She was 4-of-15 against Nigeria and 2-of-10 from deep.
There were plenty of moments where Nirra Fields’ ability to create her own shot would have been a huge boost, but the typically bouncy point guard was largely ineffective in limited playing time, with the CBC broadcast indicating she was battling an undisclosed injury.
Who knows who among that group will be on the Olympic stage again. Achonwa is expected to retire, Alexander is 33, and Nurse is a three-time Olympian and will be 32 when the Los Angeles Games roll around in 2028. You would think Carleton would still be available and her ability to shoot from deep is a skill that doesn’t go away, but after that? Who knows.
Safe to say this wasn’t how they envisioned going out, if it is the last Olympic appearance for any or all of the core.
It’s uncomfortable being critical of the women’s team, especially if you’ve followed them and been fortunate enough to interview them in various settings at various times. To a person they’re dedicated, smart, professional and passionate, and by any reasonable measure, elite at what they do.
In a perfect world they would be able to walk away from these games with a signature moment that captures their spirit and determination to do great things with a Canadian jersey on.
But at this level — and the level of women’s basketball is rising like a tide — once you enter the arena there are no guarantees of things working out the way you hoped or planned. The competition is good, and they are fighting for their dreams, too.
For an accomplished group of Canadian women who have represented the country brilliantly for a long time, it was a tough way for their 2024 Olympic dream to end, and you feel for them.
NOTES:
• The future of the women’s program is, at the very least, interesting. Aaliyah Edwards is just 22 and in her first WNBA season, Laeticia Amihere is 23 and in her second season. Swords is 18, Cassandra Prosper is 19 and Yvonne Ejim is 22 and still playing college basketball. Of the five, Edwards was the most effective in France, with head coach Victor Lapeña even having her bump Achonwa out of the starting lineup to start the third quarter on Sunday, doing the same thing with Swords in place of Nurse. Against Nigeria, Amihere was excellent, contributing seven points and 11 rebounds and a block in just 13 minutes, which raises the question of why she didn’t get more minutes earlier. Regardless, each of them will have to make considerable strides (and quickly) if Canada is going to make it five Olympic appearances in a row in 2028, let alone be a program that can compete for a medal. There is a lot of talent in the pipeline — Canada’s U17 girls won a World Cup silver earlier this summer — but the challenge of the next four years will be getting a new core the experience they need to remain among the top handful of programs in the world. The best women’s teams have stars in their lineup, often more than one. Canada has to find some.
• Big picture, you have to think women’s basketball in Canada is in a great place, and it will be fascinating to track how the arrival of a WNBA team in Toronto for 2026 changes the sport going forward. The arrival of the Raptors certainly helped key the explosion of the sport in the men’s side and in general, but with a ‘Canadian’ WNBA team, you’d think the women’s side had more growth ahead.
• When I spoke with Achonwa prior to the Olympics she was reticent to dive too deeply into the reflecting pool on the subject of her 16-year national team career coming to an end. But she did say this, and I’ll leave it here: “I don’t take [wearing a Canadian jersey] for granted and never have and I’m not going to start now because the end is near. I know that it is a privilege every time I put that jersey on and that means every time I put it on for practice, every time I’ve put a zip-up on and walk through in the airport and somebody asks me ‘are you on the national team?’ That’s a privilege, and I will focus on that until the last day I’m no longer able to.”