On Tuesday evening, USA Basketball announced its 40-person roster for U-23 Women’s National Team camp. The team’s training camp will start in Colorado Springs, Colorado on July 31.
Among the biggest names on the roster are Arike Ogunbowale and Katie Lou Samuelson, both four-time gold medalist from their participation in past USA Basketball competition. Both players have represented their country for most of their competitive lives, from the Youth Olympics on up. Now they will have the chance to compete for a spot on the Women’s National Team.
Jennifer Rizzotti, the chairperson for the USA Basketball Women’s Junior National Team Committee, believes that the training camp in Colorado Springs allows for “invaluable experience” learning from their peers and coaches. Also involved in the camp through USA Basketball are Jeff Walz from Louisville and Geno Auriemma, the coach at the University of Connecticut.
Both will be present as the young women on the camp roster compete for a chance to play for their country in Tokyo. The camp will end on August 4, at which point the finalists will be announced and given an extra four days of practice until August 8. On August 8, the ladies will fly to Tokyo to play in the Four Nations Tournament.
The tournament will include the USA, Australia, Canada and Japan. The USA Basketball program sees it as experience for the young women who will one day fight for a spot on the Olympic Team. All members must be 23 years or younger and each must be a freshman, sophomore or junior in college.
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Ogunbowale and Samuelson will be joined by 38 of their ultra-talented peer, basically striving to be a part of the next generation of women’s basketball. They will be competing for their fifth gold medal together, piling on hardware. Look no further for the future and the pinnacle of women’s basketball.