Opals reflect on AIS history as they prepare for Tokyo
The Australian Opals reconnected with their past on a recent camp at the AIS, but they’re focused on making history in Tokyo and returning to the Olympic podium.
03 June 2021
The Australian Opals reconnected with their past on a recent camp at the AIS, but they’re focused on making history in Tokyo and returning to the Olympic podium.
The AIS and Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence have a proud legacy of shaping Australia’s young basketball stars over the past 40 years.
Of the 12 players named on Australia’s Olympic squad for Tokyo, American-born guard Leilani Mitchell is the only player not to have progressed through the AIS and Basketball Australia’s Centre of Excellence.
Australian Opals captain Jenna O’Hea said at the pre-Olympic camp at the AIS: “So many of us have been through the AIS and now we’re trying out for an Olympic team, so it’s a full-circle moment.”
The Opals claimed medals at five consecutive Olympics from 1996, before finishing fifth in Rio in 2016.
Centre Marianna Tolo said” We’re trying to get on to that podium, so everyone’s got that in their back of their minds.”
The AIS wishes our Opals squad the very best in Tokyo, with the squad including: The full Olympic Opals team: Rebecca Allen, Elizabeth Cambage, Katie Ebzery, Cayla George, Tess Lavey, Tess Madgen, Eziyoda Magbegor, Leilani Mitchell, Jenna O’Hea, Alanna Smith, Stephanie Talbot, Marianna Tolo
