Canadian basketball star Achonwa preps for her fourth and final Olympics

VICTORIA — Natalie Achonwa had plans for motherhood.

As a professional basketball player and competitive person, she believed she'd quickly figure out feeding and sleep schedules after her son, Maverick, arrived in April 2023.

Babies, Achonwa learned, have little respect for plans.

Balancing parenting with returning to elite sport has been full of challenges, especially as Achonwa prepares for the Paris Olympics with the Canadian women's basketball team.

“I wouldn’t trade being Maverick’s mom for the world. But I don’t want to glamorize the life of being a professional athlete and being a mom at the same time," she said.

"I’m not saying you can’t do it. And I’m not saying women aren’t superheroes. I want to be real in the sense that there are plenty of perks, plenty of fun things that I get to experience with him. But it’s hard as hell.”

Achonwa, a 31-year-old forward from Guelph, Ont., joined Team Canada as a teen.

Her first Olympics were the 2012 London Games and she'll play the tournament for a fourth — and final — time at the Paris 2024 this month.

Selected ninth overall by Indiana Fever in the 2014 draft, Achonwa spent eight seasons playing in the WNBA for Indiana and the Minnesota Lynx, with overseas stints in Italy, France, South Korea and China.

Being a professional athlete made becoming a mom harder in some senses, she said.

"I was so hyper aware of how I should be feeling mentally and physically that when I was going through some postpartum depression, I could see myself but I couldn’t feel it," she explained at Team Canada's training camp in Victoria, B.C., last month.

"I’m like ‘This is wrong, but I don’t know what to do about it.’ And thankfully, I’ve created such an amazing group of family and friends that really pulled me through that.”

Achonwa teared up as she described how refreshing it felt to return to the women's national team.

“Coming back to this group makes me feel whole," she said. "Canada Basketball has been a part of who I am since I was 14, 16 years old. And now, adding my son, coming back from maternity leave and being a mother has changed my mindset and pushed me deeper into this Canada Basketball family and life.”

Paris will mark the fourth consecutive time Canada's women's national team has made it to the Olympics. Achonwa has been on all four squads. This time around, the Canadians head into the tournament ranked fifth in the world.

The team has a different feel, Achonwa said.

“This group is different because I don’t feel like I’m pushing them to be somewhere. I feel like I’m opening the door for them to be there," she said.

Canada finished ninth in women's basketball at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Games in 2021. Expectations were high for the team heading in, with thoughts they would bring home a medal.

“I think it was almost a hyper-focus of suffocating your dream," Achonwa said. "And throw in COVID, throw in all the things that kind of derailed our peak, not to make excuses, but it just didn’t turn out the way we wanted it to.”

The result was tough, said forward Kayla Alexander.

"We didn’t get the results we wanted in Tokyo. That was the worst," she said. "Firstly, we didn’t get the results we wanted and then second, we were stuck there. You couldn’t leave straight away and we had to sit in it. It wasn’t exactly a fun feeling."

Changes were made. Canada Basketball hired Victor Lapena to coach the team in January 2022. Some players moved on, others moved up from the development program.

Canada finished fourth at the 2022 World Cup, then took bronze at the FIBA Women's AmeriCup in 2023.

In February, though, Canada nearly missed clinching an Olympic berth after going 1-2 in qualifying. The team secured its spot when Spain beat Hungary with a dramatic comeback.

“Between (Tokyo) and how our Olympic qualifiers went? That is all the motivation I need," Alexander said. "That’s what’s been fuelling me to keep going, just having those memories of how it felt and not wanting to repeat that experience again.”

Competition at the Paris Games will be fierce.

Canada opens the tournament on July 29 against host France, who are ranked seventh in the world. Group play will also pit the Canadians against No. 3 Australia and the 12th-ranked Nigerians.

The composition of Canada's team is unique, Lapena said.

“Thinking about basketball, we have great athletes. We can do pretty dynamic basketball," the coach said. "And we have different tools in different positions that make this team very, very difficult to defend. Because we are a little bit unpredictable. And I like that.”

This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 21, 2024.