‍TORONTO, Ont. (August 19, 2021) - Canada Basketball announced Thursday the 12 athletes who will represent Canada at the upcoming FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship 2021.

The FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship 2021 is scheduled for August 23-29, 2021 and will be held at the Fair Dome, in León, Guanajuato, Mexico.  Fans in Canada can catch all the action streaming live on FIBA YouTube.

Head Coach Cheryl Jean-Paul will lead Team Canada at the FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship 2021 and is accompanied by assistant coaches Nate McKibbon and Fabienne Blizzard.

"After a year and a half of Zoom meetings and virtual camps, it’s been an exciting week of training and getting to know each other on and off court," said Jean-Paul. "This group has proven to be quite resilient with how they’ve had to adapt to not having the normal pathway to this tournament, so we are very thankful to be heading to Mexico and very excited to represent Canada at the FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship."

"We have been working hard to focus on our opportunities rather than the restrictions, understanding our safety and the health of our team is a priority so we are very grateful for the hard work Canada Basketball and all of its staff have put into making this a great camp experience," said Jean-Paul.

The team held a selection / training camp at Humber College in Etobicoke from August 10-19 before departing for Mexico.

"Now that the team has been selected, our staff is looking forward to an amazing international travel experience, allowing these young athletes to represent their country well as we are confident they will do," she said. "They are a talented group that will be exciting to watch grow and develop as the tournament unfolds."

The eight (8) participating teams in the FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship 2021 have been divided into two (2) groups (A and B) of four (4) teams each. Each team will play against all other teams in its own group (a total of 3 games for each team).

Canada is in Group A and will face Brazil (August 23, 3:30 PM ET), Costa Rica (August 24, 12:30 PM ET) and Puerto Rico (August 25, 12:30 PM ET). Click here for the full tournament schedule.

All eight teams will advance to the quarter-finals with the four winners moving on to the semifinals.  The top four teams from the FIBA U16 Americas Women's Championship 2021 will qualify for the FIBA U17 Women’s World Cup 2022.

Canada has medalled in every edition of the bi-annual event dating back to the 2009 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women, while their highest finish was a historic gold medal at the 2015 FIBA Americas U16 Championship for Women.  This will be Canada’s seventh appearance at the event.

Canada is currently ranked 4th worldwide in the FIBA World Ranking Presented by NIKE.

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