The British Olympic Association (BOA) has today announced the 12 players that will represent Team GB in women’s basketball at the London 2012 Olympic Games.
Giant strides have been made by the British squad since the formation of British Basketball in 2007, and fittingly, the London Games will be the first time that Team GB has been represented in women’s basketball at the Olympics. The squad announced today will be in confident mood after having defeated the Czech Republic, ranked fourth in the world, on Wednesday of this week.
The selected athletes are (name; age; born; home nation; current club):
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While none of the players have previous Olympic experience, they have every reason to be optimistic about their prospects of producing competitive and creditable performances on home soil this summer after registering some notable results in recent years.
The British women made history by qualifying for the 2011 EuroBasket tournament for the first time where they reached the second round, and they have recently beaten countries including South Korea, Argentina and Canada – all with significantly higher world rankings – in the build-up to this summer’s Olympic competition.
In their most important year since the team’s inception, the Team GB women’s basketball selection represents a good blend of youth and experience and will allow the side to gauge their progress by competing with some of the world’s top nations. Before the Games, Team GB will play preparatory matches against Angola, Australia and France in Sheffield before meeting reigning gold medallists USA in Manchester.
The Basketball Arena in the Olympic Park will play host to the preliminary round and women’s quarter-final, and the semi-finalists will relocate to the North Greenwich Arena where the final will also be contested on Saturday 11th August.
The announcement was made today at Loughborough University, which is hosting the Team GB Preparation Camp prior to the Games.
Team GB Chef de Mission Andy Hunt said:
Chris Spice, British Basketball Performance Director said:
Tom Maher, GB Senior Women’s Head Coach said:
Jo Leedham, player and Leadership Group member said:
Chantelle Handy said:
Azania Stewart said: