Canada's Plouffe twins eager for another shot at Olympics in 3x3 basketball

Signs of Katherine and Michelle Plouffe's competitiveness stem all the way back to before they were old enough to play on a basketball team.

As the youngest of five, the twin sisters, who are now the leaders of Canada's 3x3 women's basketball team, "grew up" in the elementary school gym while their siblings had practice.

One day, their sister's coach encouraged them to pass the ball back and forth at recess, and even that mundane task was treated like a shot at Olympic gold.

Now the 31-year-old twins from Edmonton are hoping to translate those back-and-forth passes on the playground into a killer pick-and-roll on the Olympic stage as one of Canada's medal hopes in Paris.

The Canadian team won its fifth FIBA 3x3 Women's Series title of the season on Sept. 3 in Montreal, capping a 15-0 run on home soil that also included wins in Edmonton and Quebec City this summer. This weekend they're in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia to defend their Women's Series final title.

The big event, however, happens next year at the Paris Games, and they're setting their sights high.

"That long-term vision is being on the podium," said Katherine. "That's why we started, that's why we're still here, it's to have that goal. It will be very special when we get there."

But first, they'll need to qualify, something they didn't have a chance to do when 3x3 basketball made its Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games.

The sisters have played in the Olympics in five-on-five play, but in 3x3 a combination of puzzling rules limited Canada to sending only one team from one gender to the Tokyo qualification tournament.

Canada Basketball ultimately sent the men, who hadn't had a five-on-five team at the Games since 2000.

Though the Plouffes say it was a gut punch, they're