The Australian Opals women’s basketball team has been training hard in preparation for the London 2012 Olympic Games with a special week-long camp at the AIS.

Twenty members of the Australian Opals took part in 10 sessions during the camp, which involved team and individual sessions and gym work.

The Opals won silver at the Olympic Games held in Beijing, Atlanta and Sydney. After a fifth place finish at the 2010 FIBA World Championship, the Opals have set their sights on a medal placing at the London Games in 2012.

Following the conclusion of the first training camp at the AIS last week, the Opals coaching staff announced a trimmed 15-member squad. They will continue their preparation at the AIS before embarking on a tour of Europe, where they will compete in a series of international matches. 

The Australian Opals squad includes: Suzy Batkovic, Abby Bishop, Elizabeth Cambage, Kristi Harrower, Laura Hodges, Lauren Jackson, Rachel Jarry, Kathleen Macleod, Jenna O’Hea, Erin Phillips, Samantha Richards, Jennifer Screen, Belinda Snell, Marianna Tolo and Hanna Zavecz. 

Head coach of the Australian Opals, Carrie Graf, said she was excited to have the athletes in one place for the first time.

‘It’s the first time we’ve had the group together since the World Championships and to have everyone back on deck and on-shore is great. Everyone’s excited about the campaign ahead and what we hope to achieve particularly at the London Olympics,’ she said.

‘The first session is always a bit scrappy and a bit hyper but that speaks to the intensity and the intent is that they all want to be a part of something special, so it’s an exciting part of our campaign at the AIS,’ she said.

‘It’s all about maximising our time and maximising the wonderful facilities that are [at] the AIS. It’s a world-class facility that has recovery and strength and conditioning on tap here so maximising our usage of this and managing the work loads of our athletes is key. 

'We’ve got a lot of different athletes; we’ve got veterans like Lauren going into her fourth Olympics and some young guns like Jenna [O’Hea] coming to her first, so maximising our time on court is critical for us,’ she said.

Ex-AIS athlete Lauren Jackson said that it’s great to be back at the AIS and back with her Jayco Opals teammates. There is one thing that the team today has more of in this campaign than they ever have had before and that is time.

‘This is definitely giving us a little bit of an advantage as far as getting our chemistry [right]’ said Lauren.  ‘We haven’t ever really been together before an Olympics like this, and now with the quality of players that we have, this is the most important thing, just to make sure that we know each other well and play together well.  I’m really excited.  I know it’s going to take time of course, but time we do have and we will be using it,’ Jackson said.

The Australian Opals will play three matches in a Farewell Series against Brazil in Melbourne on 24, 26 and 28 June.