Two-time Olympian Kim Gaucher happy to be back guiding Canada’s basketball women
TORONTO — When Canadian women’s basketball veteran Kim Gaucher first considered a return to the national team, she wouldn’t let herself think beyond one small training block at a time.
The 34-year-old from Mission, B.C., had all but retired from the Canadian team after its heartbreaking quarter-final exit at the 2016 Rio Olympics, but then she felt that familiar tug.
“It’s 100 per cent the passion that I have, and the love that I have for playing,” she said. “In my head I was like ‘Well, I’m still playing basketball (for professional club USO Mondeville in France).’ Last year was my first year in a three-year contract.
“If there was any way that I still could help out, that I still could be good enough, then for me, playing for Canada is the greatest, it’s so much cooler than playing for your club. Love my club, but there’s nothing like representing your country, even if it is to pass along knowledge and to try to help out the younger generation in any way I can. I want to see Canada Basketball get to the next level. And it’s a lot of fun, you know?