Olympic dreams realized for Bosch and Crozon

trevor.kenney — Fri, 05 Jul 2024 14:50:42 +0000

Basketball players part of large ULethbridge contingent headed to Paris Olympics

Could it really happen any other way? Kacie Bosch (BA ’20) and Paige Crozon punched their ticket to the Paris Olympics in the most dramatic of ways, winning the bronze medal match in the final 3x3 women’s basketball Olympic qualifying tournament. After years of crossing the globe, jumping through qualifying hoops and racking up win after win as the world’s top-rated 3x3 team, they are Paris bound.

“It doesn’t really feel real yet,” says Crozon, who along with Bosch is an assistant coach for the Pronghorns women’s basketball team. “We’ve been preparing the last five years for this, just hoping and wishing we’d get this opportunity. I’m so proud of our team and the resilience we showed to even get to this point, and we are honoured to play amongst these women in Paris.”

Kacie Bosch, left, and Paige Crozon, middle, celebrate with teammates Michelle and Katherine Plouffe after they clinched their spot in the Paris Olympics.

The duo, who will compete alongside Olympic veterans Michelle and Katherine Plouffe, earned their spot in Paris the hard way. They fell one win short at an Olympic qualifying event in Japan, then needed a top-three finish in Hungary to secure their Olympic berth, only to lose a semifinal game to Spain on a fluke shot in the last second. It set up a winner-take-all match against the home Hungary side, and while they easily dispatched the hosts, the adversity they faced is seen as welcome experience.

“That loss to Australia in Japan was devastating for our group and we were really disheartened. We wanted to come home, come back to our families and have more time to train for Paris and instead we had four days at home and it was back on the road for another qualifier,” says Crozon.

Bosch says the experience of the Plouffe twins guided their emotions through the nerve-wracking final qualifying tournament. They also refocused their sights on what truly guides their success — having fun.

“The pressure was on, and we started to focus on the outside noise, like who was refereeing and what might happen if we lost and that’s not good for us,” says Bosch. “That’s not how we play our best ball. When we have joy, when we’re laughing and joking before we run on the court, that’s what makes us play well.”

With their spot now secure, the focus is on gearing up for Paris. The Olympics begin July 24, with the 3x3 basketball tourney running July 30 through Aug. 5. While Bosch rehabilitates a litany of knee injuries, Crozon is playing with Canada on the FIBA professional circuit. The group will reconvene in Toronto for a short training camp and head to Paris a week before their Olympic opener.

“I’m a very emotional person, so I’m already picturing us wearing our Canada jerseys and competing for our country,” says Bosch. “It’s such a huge tournament and to have friends and family there who have been supporting me since the start of my career is going to be amazing. It’s a full-circle moment — everybody has worked so hard to get to this point, and I’m so thankful for all the people behind the scenes who have supported and pushed and been practice players for us and sacrificed their time. Putting that jersey on is just an amalgamation of everybody’s efforts.”

Crozon eyes the opportunity with gratitude and joy.

“To share this with all the individuals who have helped us get to this point is something I’m really looking forward to,” she says. “It will be a big stage, but it doesn’t change why I play basketball because I just love to play. I feel free and so much joy playing basketball, so I don’t think the stage matters, I’m just excited to have another opportunity to play the game I love with everybody I care about.”

As far as who they will meet in Paris, there are no surprises. All the world’s best teams will be there, and they have faced each other many times on the professional circuit. They fear nobody.

“We’ve faced every team multiple times in games that have come down to the last few seconds, overtime games, we’ve gone through the gauntlet,” says Bosch. “All the things we’ve had to overcome, that’s our advantage going into Paris.”

Pronghorns in Paris

Pronghorns track coach Larry Steinke (BA ’94) has been running the most prominent throws program in U SPORTS for years and has been consistently involved with Canada's elite athletes at the international level. He is excited to make his sixth Olympic appearance and says this may prove to be the most memorable yet.

“It’s always an honour to represent Canada at the international level. This one will be unique, as each one is, but we go in with the best Team Canada we have ever had in track and field, including six world champions. Without a doubt it will be a special Olympics in that regard,” says Steinke, who will serve as Team Coach.

Another team member serving as mission staff is Ryan Sommer (BA '16) who competed for Steinke as a shot put specialist for the Horns from 2011-2016. After leaving ULethbridge, he turned his sights to bobsled and represented Canada at the 2022 Beijing Olympics where he won bronze in the four-man bobsled. Meanwhile, Mike Tamura (BA), who competed for the Horns in judo in the 1980s, will serve as Judo sport director in Paris.

As well, former Pronghorns swimmer Apollo Hess and cyclist Sarah Orban (BA ’18) will compete for Canada in Paris.

Hess swam for the Horns for two seasons, winning gold in the 200-metre and 50-metre breaststroke at the 2022 U SPORTS Championships where he was named U SPORTS Rookie of the Year. After another outstanding 2023 season, he moved to Toronto to join the High Performance Centre. Hess is a member of the Kainai Nation, and the first Blood Tribe member and swimmer of Indigenous descent to participate in the Olympics.

Orban played Horns women’s soccer and ran track while at ULethbridge. In 2017, she participated in the RBC Training Ground program and won the Alberta Regional Final, sparking interest from the national skeleton and cycling teams. She chose to focus on cycling and was named to the national team 18 months later. She won team sprint gold at the 2022 Commonwealth Games and bronze at the 2023 Pan American Games. Orban graduated with a double major in kinesiology and psychology.

See this story to learn about Kacie Bosch's journey as a student in the Faculty of Education

Olympic Competition Schedule (All times MDT)

Kacie Bosch & Paige Crozon (Women's 3X3 Basketball)

Tuesday, July 30 — 10 a.m. vs. Australia
Wednesday, July 31 — 10 a.m. vs. China
Thursday, Aug. 1 — 1:30 a.m. vs. Germany
Thursday, Aug. 1 — 2 p.m. vs. France
Friday, Aug. 2 — 10 a.m. vs. USA
Friday, Aug. 2 — 1 p.m. vs. Spain
Saturday, Aug. 3 — 9:30 a.m. vs. Azerbaijan
Monday, Aug. 5 — Playoffs (TBD)

Apollo Hess (Men's Swimming, 4x100-metre medley relay)

Friday, Aug. 2 — 3 a.m. (Heats)
Saturday, Aug. 3 — 3 a.m. (Heats)
Sunday, Aug. 4 — Finals (TBD)

Sarah Orban (Women's Team Sprint Track Cycling)

Monday, Aug. 5 — 9 a.m. (Qualifying)
Monday, Aug. 5 — 10:55 a.m. (First Round)
Monday, Aug. 5 — Finals (TBD)

Orban is one step closer to her Olympic dream

caroline.zentner — Thu, 11 Jan 2018 22:23:53 +0000

Having been an athlete most of her life, Sarah Orban, a fifth-year ��Ѹ��Դ��߿�Ƭ of Lethbridge student majoring in kinesiology and psychology, isn’t intimidated by a seven-day-a-week training schedule.

On the fast track to train for Canada’s Olympic track cycling team, Orban trains weekdays in her hometown of Calgary and then travels to either Burnaby, British Columbia or Milton, Ontario to train on an indoor velodrome on the weekends.

Sarah Orban, centre, has chosen to train for a spot on Canada's Olympic track cycling team.

“The first time I went on the track I felt like I was going to fall over on the bike,” she says. “I kept trying and, as I saw improvements and figured out that I could actually be really good at this sport, I decided that this was the sport for me.”

Her journey from competing with both the Pronghorns women’s soccer team and the track and field team to the velodrome had a few twists and turns. Because of her speed and lower body strength, her father, Scott Orban (BA ’90), a former Pronghorns men’s hockey player, suggested she might make a good bobsledder. Three years ago, she took up his suggestion and went to a Team Canada recruitment camp for skeleton and bobsleigh.

“They recruited me because I met the national standards,” she says. “I’ve been in contact with their recruiter ever since I went to the camp. My plan was to finish school and then put my focus into skeleton.”

The recruiter sent Orban information about the RBC Training Ground program, an initiative of the Canadian Olympic Committee, CBC Sports and RBC to identify the next generation of Olympic athletes. Training Ground held qualifiers in five provinces to identify athletes for 11 national sport organizations.

Orban signed up for a qualifier held last March at the U of L and succeeded in becoming one of 100 athletes from across Alberta chosen to participate in the final held in Calgary in May. Her performance led to her being named RBC Training Ground Alberta regional champion.

“I won the entire event,” she says. “Part of the contest was that all the winners from the finals go on a trip to the Olympics this year. I’m still mind-blown about it — to travel across the world and get to see the Olympics.”

Following the final in Calgary, Orban was recruited by the rugby, skeleton, cycling and track and field national organizations. She did more specific testing in the first three and narrowed her choice down to skeleton and cycling.

“I ended up choosing cycling and I’m happy about my decision,” she says. “The whole goal is to fast-track us to the Olympic team. I’ve never been on a bicycle for anything competitive before now, so right now it’s baby steps. I’ve seen lots of progression in the last few months so it’s going good.”

While she’s training with her coach, former Olympic track cyclist Tanya Dubnicoff, Orban will also work on completing the requirements for her degree by taking four applied studies courses. Eventually, she plans to go into sports psychology.

Orban leaves Feb. 9 for PyeongChang to attend the Winter Olympics for a week.

UNews - Sarah Orban

Olympic dreams realized for Bosch and Crozon

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