Regional diversity has become a hallmark of Canadian women's basketball. And on the 2016 Olympic team, it's embodied by Nayo Raincock-Ekunwe.

Nayo spent the first decade and a half of her life in Ontario, where she fell in love with the game. Then she moved to B.C. where she grew to become one of the country's best players.

Now that she's a professional who just spent two years playing in Germany, Nayo isn't so much an Ontarian or a British Columbian as she is simply a Canadian.

"I was exposed to the basketball culture in Toronto, and in Ontario they definitely have a strong youth program," says the 24-year-old forward.

"But across Canada, with the Centre for Performance and Development Program, other countries don't have that. I just recently played in Germany and there's nothing like that over there, so I think the young athletes in Canada are really lucky to have that."

From when she discovered basketball as an eight-year-old Toronto Raptors fan, to winning the B.C. AA MVP while playing Kalmalka in Vernon, B.C., to four record-setting seasons at Simon Fraser University, Nayo has had the opportunity to learn from a variety of mentors.

"My coaches throughout childhood and university always taught me everything they knew and they helped me develop as a person and a player," says Nayo, who was named an NCAA Division II All-American by the Women's Basketball Coaches Association for her senior season, 2012-13, at SFU." So my role model has changed all throughout my life, but it's always been my coaches."

Nayo, who initially represented Canada on the development women's national team in 2011, played her first major tournaments with the senior women's national team last summer. It was, rather appropriately, a cross-country tour, that started in Toronto with a gold medal triumph at the Pan-Am Games and ended in Edmonton where Canada clinched an Olympic berth by winning the FIBA Americas Championship.

And even in Alberta, Nayo felt right at home.

"My family and friends came out from Vancouver and Okanagan," she smiles. "So winning in front of them was probably my best feeling."

By: Brian Swane

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