“I began to doubt that I would be considered for the preparation camp because no one had seen me play for a whole year, but I kept working hard in the gym and weight room with the team,” Fagbenle said.
The odds of her making the team at 19 seemed slim. No one else who made the team was younger than 22.
“I thought it would be a longshot,” Fagbenle said. “I began to look towards 2016 instead.”
While the Olympics are an honor no matter where they are held, the possibility of playing for her home country while the events were being held in England provided even more motivation. Also, the host team is guaranteed a spot in the 12-team tournament.
So Fagbenle chased her dream, leaving school a few days early to travel back home and attend the Olympic preparation camp. There, she showed off her new skills to coach Tom Maher and quickly saw her stock rise.
Impressed by Fagbenle’s combination of size and skill, Maher fast-tracked her and added her to the adult team. From there, Fagbenle continued to take advantage of every opportunity and, by the time her squad faced the reigning gold-medalist Americans, she was starting and in charge of attempting to control the tip-off.
“It was great playing against the women on the USA team,” Fagbenle said. “I am so happy for the experience. Never would I have thought I would be running down the court having to guard Candace Parker and the likes of them at this age.”
Fagbenle’s rise corresponded with the general rise of British basketball. Just five years ago, when Fagbenle was just picking up basketball, Great Britain did not even have a world ranking in women’s basketball. Two years ago, the British did not compete in the 24-team FIBA World Championship.
Despite still being ranked near the bottom of FIBA’s top 50, the team now appears to be a real threat to make it out of the group stage and into the knockout round.
In exhibition competition this summer, Great Britain beat 11th-ranked Canada, eighth-ranked France, and the fourth-ranked Czech Republic.
“Our team expects to perform fearlessly and relentlessly each game,” Fagbenle said. “If we are able to do that, we will go very far in the Olympics.”
Even if Great Britain is unable to pull off the series of upsets it would need to make a dent in the women’s basketball tournament, Fagbenle will return to Harvard strengthened by her experiences this summer and ready to make a real impact on the floor.
“I can only imagine that this Olympic experience can bring her to a new level of play,” Harvard women’s basketball coach Kathy Delaney-Smith said.
—Staff writer Jacob D. H. Feldman can be reached at jacobfeldman@college.harvard.edu