Meadows heading to Olympics to coach basketball

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The fact she’s going to the Olympics still hasn’t sunk in for Brantford’s Claire Meadows.

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Meadows, the head coach of the women’s basketball team at Queen’s University, will be an assistant coach for the German women’s national team when it competes at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France, next month.

“It’s a little bit surreal still,” said the North Park Collegiate graduate.

“It really feels like it’s been a whirlwind this past year. Once I get over to Germany, and we start training, it will start to feel a little bit more real.”

Meadows was flying to Germany on Wednesday as the team prepared to embark on a rigorous pre-Olympic schedule that will see it play games in Finland, Poland, Great Britain and Germany against the host teams as well as Puerto Rico, Portugal, Nigeria and the United States.

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Just getting to this point was a battle for the German women’s basketball team, which had never before qualified for the Olympic Games.

Early last year there was an opening for the head coaching position of the women’s team. Gordie Herbert, a Canadian who was coaching the German men’s team, recommended Lisa Thomaidis, who had recently parted ways with Canada Basketball.

Thomaidis is a six-time Canada West coach of the year at the University of Saskatchewan and a three-time U Sports coach of the year. Meadows was an assistant coach at Saskatchewan before taking over as head coach at Queen’s.

When Thomaidis asked Meadows to join the German staff, the pair were off and running although they had their work cut out for them.

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“We had to meet everybody,” said Meadows.

“The players on the team are truly, truly incredible players. It was a great experience and by the end of the summer we felt we had formed something quite special with the group.”

Joining Meadows and Thomaidis on the staff was Sidney Parsons and the three were able to help Germany get to the Olympic qualifier in Brazil that took palce earlier this year.

The Germans beat Serbia and lost to Australia at the qualifier, setting up a showdown with the host country for the final Olympic berth. Following a dramatic 73-71 win, Germany booked its spot in Paris.

“It was a really emotional and competitive game,” said Meadows.

“Brazil has been a pretty strong team so for us to turn around and beat Brazil was pretty incredible for the country.”

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The German team is led by a pair of WNBA players – Satou Sabally (Dallas Wings) and Nyara Sabally (New York Liberty) – but they’re much deeper than two players.

“The players playing in the WNBA are definitely impactful players on our roster,” Meadows said.

“But with that being said, those who aren’t in the WNBA, we still have some really good players who play in the pro system over in Europe. We have a nice mixture of young and old.”

Thankfully Meadows won’t have to worry about facing Canada in preliminary play as Germany is in a pool with Japan, Belgium and the U.S.

Unfortunately, it won’t be easy to get to the quarter-finals as only the top-two teams in the three pools – as well as the next two best teams – move into the playoffs.

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“Our pool is hard,” said Meadows.

“I think they’ll refer to our pool as the pool of death. We’ll have our hands full. Our goal is to get out of our pool, for sure. We’re going to have to play some really good basketball.”

Meadows said coaching at Queen’s has been an exceptional experience but she can’t wait for the challenge – and experience – of going to the Olympics.

“My family (parents Deb and Paul) and my partner (Holly Annand) are coming over to watch because it’s truly a once in a lifetime opportunity,” the 40-year-old said.

“The last few years I’ve had incredible experiences and opportunities. It’s hard to compare one to another but I have to put this one at the top.”

Women’s basketball at the Olympics begins on July 28 and concludes on Aug. 11. Germany starts play on July 29 against Belgium.

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