The women’s Olympic basketball team will be represented by guard Alisha Tatham (Brampton, ON) and assistant coach Lisa Thomaidis (Hamilton, ON) in the up-coming Olympic Hero’s Parade in Toronto. Both Alisha and Lisa have taken part in Olympic activities in Ottawa and Toronto.

Alisha Tatham poses with the Queen's Diamond Jubilee Medal awarded to her by the
Prime Minister on Wednesday

Starting at approximately noon at the corner of Albert and Bay Streets, the parade will move through the heart of downtown Toronto before ending at a public celebration at Maple Leaf Square in front of the Air Canada Centre.

The parade route can be found here: http://olympic.ca/celebration-of-excellence.

This was a very successful season for the Senior Women’s National Team with the team qualifying for the 2012 London Olympic Games in dramatic fashion on Canada Day.

Many in the sport did not give Team Canada much of a chance at the onset of the tournament. The Canadian women opened against the Russian team - ranked second at the time by FIBA. The basketball community saw Canada as the underdogs in the game, but the team's actions on the court proved that they were not to be taken lightly. Canada led for most of the match, but fell just short of a victory with a 58-53 decision.

Canada then faced the difficult task of playing the host nation - Great Britain. The Canadian women silenced the lively home crowd with a confident 73-65 win.

Up next was a familiar foe: France. In recent years, the Canadians and the French have developed a healthy rivalry with many matches decided in the game's final moments. This day would be no different as the eighth-seeded French squad squeaked by Canada with a 64-60 win.

The next game pitted the Canadians against sixth-ranked and FIBA Americas zone member Brazil in what would prove to be a crucial match. Canada played a tight back-and-forth game against the Brazilians before emerging with a hard-earned 79-73 victory and a berth into the quarter-finals.

The final game of the round-robin portion of the tournament saw Canada play the second-ranked Australian team. Despite playing with determination and heart, the Aussies' size up-front proved too much for Canada to handle.

In the quarter-final game, Canada tipped-off against the winner of the previous 4 Olympic games: the United States. Canada kept the game within reach, but ultimately fell to the eventual gold medalists.

With this 8th-place showing, Canada jumped from 11th to 9th place in the FIBA world rankings while winning the hearts of Canadians basketball fans through effort and skill.

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