Barring Appeals, W.N.B.A.’s Nneka Ogwumike Will Miss the Olympics

Staley, who is not part of the five-player selection committee, said a left knee sprain, which Ogwumike sustained on June 2, was the reason she didn’t make the squad. However, based on the recovery timeline from the injury, Ogwumike is expected to be healthy for Olympic competition. The prognosis was similar for Diana Taurasi, who missed nearly a month with a sternum fracture and recently had a hip injury which kept her out of the team’s exhibition game on Wednesday, but was still selected to compete in her fifth Olympics.

Current and former W.N.B.A. and N.B.A. players and coaches expressed their outrage on social media and in interviews after the U.S. team was announced. Some criticized the influence the University of Connecticut has on the roster.

Candace Parker, a two-time Olympian who removed herself from national team consideration after being left off the 2016 team, addressed the situation, saying, “How many times are we going to say it’s not politics? I think we all know that.

“That’s why I’m commentating in Tokyo,” she added, referring to her role as part of NBC’s broadcast team for the Olympics.

Geno Auriemma, the coach of UConn’s women’s team, is a member of the selection committee and coached the Olympic team in 2012 and 2016. Five former Huskies made the current 12-person squad, including Bird, Taurasi, Breanna Stewart, Tina Charles and Napheesa Collier.

“What I find humorous was the two times I was the coach, it was ‘UConn politics, UConn bias’ because I was the coach,” Auriemma recently told reporters.

Article source: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/07/16/sports/olympics/nneka-ogwumike-nigeria.html