Spaniard Victor Lapena has been tasked with taking Canada’s women’s basketball team to the 2024 Paris Olympics.
The 46-year-old from Zaragoza is a longtime coach with Spain’s national women’s program at both the development and senior levels, and was an assistant at the 2016 Rio Olympics. He’s been the head coach of Fenerbahce of the Turkish Super League since 2019.
Noelle Quinn, currently the head coach of the WNBA’s Seattle Storm, will be Lapena’s lead assistant alongside current assistant coaches Steve Baur and Carly Clarke.
“I believe the program has tremendous potential as we enter a transition period for the Senior Women’s National Team ahead of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games,” Lapena said in a statement. “Our challenge will be give confidence to the stars of the future, while not forgetting all the good that has been done to get the team to this point. That to me is the cornerstone of building a winning team and culture.”
Lapena has captured 14 international FIBA medals in his 14 years with the Spanish national program, including a silver at the Rio Olympics. He also helped coach Spain to silver at the 2014 FIBA world championships.
Since joining Fenerbahce in 2019, Lapena has led the team to the Turkish Women’s Basketball Presidential Cup (2019), Turkish Women’s Basketball Cup (2020) and to a club-record 15th Women’s Basketball Super League title in 2021.
Quinn has been with Seattle in a variety of coaching roles since retiring as a player in 2018, joining the Storm as an assistant coach in 2019 before becoming associate head coach for the 2020 season where she helped lead the team to their fourth WNBA championship in franchise history.
As a player, Quinn was selected fourth overall in the 2007 WNBA Draft by Minnesota and appeared in 400 games over 12 seasons with the Lynx, Los Angeles Sparks, Washington Mystics, Seattle Storm and Phoenix Mercury.
“Over the course of the last several years, I’ve observed the growing strength of Canada Basketball and the senior women’s national team,” Quinn said. “To now have the opportunity to join the program, especially at a time when the future is so bright, and to work alongside Victor and the entire staff, is an exciting opportunity and one I’m grateful to be a part of. Our quest to the Paris 2024 Olympic Games starts today and I can’t wait to get to work.”
The hirings are the culmination of a global search by Canada Basketball to replace Canadian Lisa Thomaidis, who agreed to part ways with the national organization after nine years at the helm of the senior women’s program.
Canada had high hopes for last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, arriving in Japan with a program-high No. 4 ranking. But COVID-19 kept the team from practising together for the better part of 18 months, and they were eliminated in the preliminary round at the Games.
Canada’s quest for a berth in the FIBA women’s World Cup begins next month. Canada is in Group C for the FIBA World Cup 2022 qualifying tournament and will play Japan, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Belarus in mid-February in Osaka, Japan.
Three teams from each tournament will advance to the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 in Sydney.
