Pro women's league, female head coach on Thomaidis' wishlist for Canada women's basketball
CBC
As basketball's profile in Canada rose significantly this millennium, so did that of the national women's team.
And since 2001, Lisa Thomaidis was along for the ride — for nine years as head coach following 12 years as an assistant.
Thomaidis and Canada Basketball announced a mutual split last week following a disappointing Olympic appearance, but the woman who saw the program grow from a niche national interest into a medal threat hopes that upward trajectory only continues.
"I remember thinking back in 2012 when we went to the London Olympics and knowing that would be the first time our team had been on national TV. And now to the point where we've been on national TV every year," Thomaidis said in an interview with CBC Sports on Monday.
Under Thomaidis, the team achieved its best-ever ranking of No. 4 heading into the 2021 Olympics.
And after two straight quarter-final exits in 2012 and 2016, the team's expectation was to finally play for a spot on the podium in Tokyo. Instead, it failed to advance past the group stage with a 1-2 record that included losses to Serbia (now ranked ninth) and No. 3 Spain.
Canada maintained its ranking of fourth despite the heartbreak.
Since leaving her "most challenging" Olympics without a swimming medal three months ago, Penny Oleksiak has climbed 19,000 feet to the top of Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, done other charity work and attended her first Bills football game in Buffalo.
The Professional Women's Hockey League unveiled the home and away uniform designs for its six teams on Thursday, a little over three weeks before opening its second season.
In 2015, when Gabriel Cousineau was in his senior year as quarterback for the Montreal Carabins, he also worked full-time at a secondary school in the city called Collège Laval.
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After nearly six complete seasons, the Canadian Premier League finds itself at an inflection point.
A focus on teamwork — in both individual distances and in the relay — helped Canada's short track squad capture four medals, including three gold, on home ice on Saturday during the second stop of the ISU Short Track World Tour in Montreal.
This is an excerpt from The Buzzer, which is CBC Sports' daily email newsletter. Stay up to speed on what's happening in sports by subscribing here.
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