Aubry, Achonwa ready for Olympic showdown

Kitchener, Guelph athletes on women's basketball team

KITCHENER — Little more than a week after the biggest game of her career, Chelsea Aubry is back home, quietly shooting hoops in a gym at the University of Waterloo.

Her sneakers have barely touched the ground since helping Canada’s women’s basketball team qualify for the Olympics, and here she is, wondering if it was all just a dream.
“I come back home, and you kind of go back to doing the same old things,” Aubry said, on a break from a solo workout. “You know you’re training for something big, but it just doesn’t sink in.”
Something big is an understatement. The Kitchener native and another local girl, Guelph’s Natalie Achonwa, are bound for the 2012 Summer Olympics — ending Canada’s 12-year absence from the Games in women’s basketball.
“You set high goals, but you don’t really imagine you’re going to hit them. When you do, it’s like, ‘Oh, goodness. Now what?’” she said.
Aubry was on the court July 1 as the final seconds ticked down in Canada’s 71-63 win over Japan at a qualifying tournament in Turkey. It was a must-win game for the last Olympic berth, and Japan charged to within three points in the fourth quarter.
“That last minute, it was like, ‘Oh my God. We’re going to win.’ I couldn’t really focus on defence. I was just kind of standing in the middle of the court,” the 10-year veteran of the women’s team said.
Aubry’s parents were in the crowd in Turkey, part of a small Canadian cheering section. With their daughter talking about retiring from basketball, they knew it might have been their last chance to watch her play.
Now, any talk about retirement will have to wait for the Grand River Collegiate grad, whose dream of competing in the Olympics has finally come true.
Guelph’s Achonwa, the 19-year-old forward who sat out the game against Japan because of an ankle sprain, says the women need to stick with what’s been working as they prepare for London.
“We need to stay true to what we’ve done this entire time,” Achonwa said from Chicago, where she was visiting friends.
“What we’ve done together is what’s got us here. There’s no need to go crazy and add a bunch of stuff. We just need to stick to the game plan.”
Achonwa said her ankle is feeling fine after a recent visit to a doctor at her U.S. college, Notre Dame, and she’s ready to go.
She’s returning home to Guelph this week and will train on her own before joining her teammates at a mini-training camp in Toronto starting July 17. They leave for London on July 20.
The 11th-ranked Canadians are in a tough Olympic pool. They play No. 2-ranked Russia July 28, host Great Britain July 30, No. 8-ranked France Aug. 1, No. 6-ranked Brazil Aug. 3, and No. 2-ranked Australia Aug. 5.
“I think we’re in a good pool. It’s going to be a battle each game,” Achonwa said.
The international rankings may have them as an underdog, but Aubry insists the inspired Canadian squad can hold its own against anybody.
“I think a lot of people have seen the pool and are like, ‘Oh, great. Good luck at the Olympics,’” she said. “But the girls on the team, we’re thinking, ‘Why not?’ We’ve got nothing to lose.”

-- Torstar News Services

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