Last year's NCAA women's basketball tournament saw a historic viewership with 24 million viewers for the championship game, highlighting the growing popularity of women's sports and the emergence of star players like Caitlin Clark, Angel Reese, and Paige Bueckers. This year, a new wave of Canadian freshmen such as Syla Swords, Jasmine Bascoe, and Delaney Gibb are proving their worth on Division I rosters, indicating an upward trend for Canadian basketball. Swords, who plays for Michigan, has also made history by being the youngest Canadian to compete in the senior women's national team at the 2024 Paris Olympics.
"My dad is the coach [at Laurentian], that's the gym I grew up in, and in my mind, that was the goal," Swords told CBC Sports.
"I still remember walking to the gym for the first time with the senior team, seeing Natalie Achonwa, Kia Nurse, in the same gym, and thinking, 'Oh, I'm gonna have to guard them now.'"
"Swords made history as the youngest Canadian Olympian to play for the senior women's basketball team at the Paris 2024 Games."
"Bueckers, Reese, and Clarke epitomize the recent surge of interest and viewership in women's NCAA basketball, pushing the limits of expectations and records."
Collection
[
|
...
]