Canada’s Natalie Achonwa makes a pass during a game against Nigeria at the Paris Olympics, on Aug. 4.Mark J. Terrill/The Associated Press
Expectations for Canada’s women’s basketball team were high heading into 2024.
Veteran WNBA stars Natalie Achonwa and Kia Nurse were set to lead the squad into a fourth-straight Olympics in Paris, where the country was expected to push for the podium.
Instead, Canada went winless over three group-stage games, finished 11th in the tournament and slipped to seventh in the world rankings.
Now, the organization is focused on the future.
The Canadian Press spoke with Steve Baur, Canada Basketball’s interim head of women’s high performance, about what comes next for the team.
This interview has been edited for length and clarity.
You’ve had a few months now to reflect on the Olympics. How do you look at the performance in Paris now?
BAUR: “I think Paris is still tough for us. At the end of the day, we’re in a really exciting era for Canadian basketball but we certainly had higher expectations for ourselves and higher goals than how we finished. And I look at the growth that we’ve had – we’ve been to four consecutive Olympics – and to not get out of pool play, we thought we were ready for a bigger step. I look at somebody like Natalie Achonwa who’s been there for all four and it still pains me to look at how the Paris Olympics finished and that was our final moment together. So it’s still tough. For sure, it gives us some lessons learned and some motivations for next steps, but Paris still stings.”
What did you personally learn and what did you learn about this group?
BAUR: “The group, I think we’ve learned some really great resilience. I think there are and were a lot of emotions that came out of that loss (to Nigeria). But I think what’s been truly great is the people who went through it, who are all veterans now – some are as young as (18-year-old) Syla Swords and some on the other end of the spectrum like a Kayla Alexander who’d be a more veteran player – we’ve already gotten together as a team again to talk about what does need to change. It does motivate me just to know how inspired they are to continue to go at this. It wasn’t a `Oh, woe is me’ or `Let’s put our heads down.’ It was truly focused on ‘Let’s continue to move forward.”’ CP: What do the next steps look like?
BAUR: “We were together roughly three days in November and they wasted no time getting down to business. … We need people to be all in. We’re all balancing a lot of different realities in our schedules. We have people in the WNBA, we have people playing overseas, we have people in college and, in Syla’s case, we had people in high school. So how do we balance all those schedules and make it so our team is truly connected moving forward? So we spent some time talking about what can that look like, balancing our realities and schedules but being great teammates and building a culture that we think is going to be strong moving forward.”
Another big piece that you need moving forward is a new coach after Canada Basketball parted ways with head coach Victor Lapena in October. What does the search look like and do you have a timeline for it?
BAUR: “We’ve tried to prioritize getting our culture right with each other first. The athletes, we’ve looked around the room and talked about what does it look like for us as a team to have everything correct. … Now that we’ve established their expectations of each other, they’ve had a chance to be real, clear and honest, all those wonderful things that come in direct conversations, now we’re like `Let’s find a coach that fits those values, that’s going to continue to build this group together.’ … So our timeline, to get to that part of it, we’re not in a huge rush right now. The next time we’re truly together as a team will probably be the spring. So we’re exploring some things now, some early calls with people. But I think we want to see some of the WNBA landscape shake out. Because it’s the same candidate pools of coaches. We want to see where they are and then know what those realities are. Like, when can our coach be available? What does it look like for you to coach in this space or other spaces, whatever that may be, and with team Canada as well.” CP: It seems unusual that national team athletes get this kind of say in what they want out of a coach.
BAUR: “We just felt like it was the right thing for what this team needed now. I thought our team has lived some real consistent international success, to some level. But also missing that next step. And I think that’s given them really good context of what it needs to look like. They’ve been really clear about what they need from each other. That sets the environment. Now it’s our job to find a coach that fits right into that vision and gets it over the hump.”
The other significant departure for the women’s program was Denise Dignard who retired from her role as general manager and executive high-performance director of the women’s program last month. What’s it been like to step into the interim role?
BAUR: “It’s been tough. Denise has been here, steadfast for our program, our rock of the program, for 20-plus years. … But what’s been really supportive has been the people around me. The athletes, we talked about wanting to get together in November. And the veterans, the Olympians, were really clear on what they wanted to do. They said `Let’s talk about our culture, let’s talk about commitment, let’s talk about how we work as a group to make ourselves the best we can be as we work toward (the 2028 L.A. Olympics). So the support of the athletes really helped me get going.”
As you work toward the 2028 Games, how do you capitalize on the growth of women’s basketball?
BAUR: “We’ve, so far, talked about our Olympians. But we’ve also got a young group that’s coming up in behind them – Toby Fournier’s been great, Shy Day-Wilson, Sarah Te-Biasu having great college careers, someone like Achol Akot in high school. Our job is to continue to put them out there and enjoy their successes as it inspires the next generation. That’s always been the longevity for Canada. It seems like people are inspired by what they can see. And we get the opportunity of the (WNBA) coming (to Toronto) as well, a couple Canadians playing in Canada would also be really cool to show people what’s possible. And we’ve lived it with the Vince Carter effect in Toronto. I think Shai (Gigeous-Alexander) for the men’s side has cited that, how seeing Vince Carter inspired him to become who he is. And hopefully, we get the same kickbacks from the W coming to Toronto.”