Canada Basketball's Steve Baur says women's team will build off Olympic failure in Paris

Expectations for Canada's women's basketball team were high heading into 2024.

Veteran WNBA stars Natalie Achonwa and Kia Nurse were set to lead the squad into a fourth straight Olympics in Paris, where the country was expected to push for the podium.

Instead, Canada went winless over three group-stage games, finished 11th in the tournament and slipped to seventh in the world rankings.

Now, the organization is focused on the future.

The Canadian Press spoke with Steve Baur, Canada Basketball's interim head of women's high performance, about what comes next for the team.

This interview has been edited for length and clarity.

Canadian Press: How do you view the performance in Paris?

Steve Baur: I think Paris is still tough for us. At the end of the day, we're in a really exciting era for Canadian basketball but we certainly had higher expectations for ourselves and higher goals than how we finished. And I look at the growth that we've had, we've been to four consecutive Olympics, and to not get out of pool play, we thought we were ready for a bigger step.

I look at somebody like Natalie Achonwa who's been there for all four and it still pains me to look at how the Paris Olympics finished and that was our final moment together. So, it's still tough. For sure, it gives us some lessons learned and some motivations for next steps, but Paris still stings.

WATCH | Canada goes winless at Paris Olympics after loss to Nigeria:

Canadian women's basketball team eliminated from Paris 2024 after loss to Nigeria

CP:  What did you learn personally and about this group?

SB: The group, I think we've learned some really great resilience. I think there are and were a lot of emotions that came out of that loss [to Nigeria]. But I think