WNBA Rookies Watch – Checking up on the rookies who played in the 2024 Paris Summer Olympics.

It has been over a month since the last WNBA Rookies Watch blog post was written and it is now time to resume the weekly WNBA Rookies Watch blog posts. This week’s edition of the WNBA Rookies Watch will discuss in detail the WNBA Rookies who played in the Paris Summer Olympic Games for their respective countries.

Two Washington Mystics rookies got the oppurtunity to represent their country. Forward Aaliyah Edwards represented Team Canada while point guard Julie Vanloo represented Team Belgium.

It is now time to recap the tenth week of WNBA Rookies Watch. You can read the previous week here.

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WNBA Rookies Watch – Checking up on the WNBA Rookies Who Played in the Paris Summer Olympic Games

This week, the WNBA Rookies Watch is different as only two WNBA Rookies got to play in the Summer Olympic Games and it was smaller than usual due to a lack of WNBA roster spots as well as the oppurtunity to contribute to their respective team’s roster.

*Note – The FIBA Women’s Olympic Basketball Tournament took place from July 28th to August 11th, 2024*

Aaliyah Edwards – Forward, Washington Mystics

Aaliyah Edwards represented Team Canada at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Team Canada finished in 11th place and went 0-3 in the Group Phase. They lost to France, Australia and Nigeria. Aaliyah Edwards scored 1 point, 1 assist, 1 steal, 1 block, 3 turnovers and 8 rebounds in Team Canada’s first blowout loss to Team France in the Group Phase. In the next game versus Team Australia, she scored 4 points, 1 rebound, 1 assist, 3 steals, 3 turnovers. This was a close loss as they lost by 5 points. In their final game versus Team Nigeria, she scored 5 points, 5 rebounds, 2 assists and 1 turnover. This was also a close loss as Team Nigeria upset Team Canada. Canada did not advance past the Group Phase and so therefore Aaliyah Edwards time at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games were cut short.

While it was disappointing to see Team Canada fall early at the Summer Olympic Games, Aaliyah Edwards was able to finally get the oppurtunity to have some rest as many of her fellow rookies that were not participating in these Olympics. While she was a WNBA rookie, this was actually her second Olympics Games appearance as she made her debut in Tokyo 2020 as an 18 year old. Now, that is pretty impressive. In the Paris 2024 Olympics, she averaged 3.3 points per game, 4.7 rebounds per game, 1.3 assists per game, 1.3 steals per game, 0.3 blocks per game and 2.3 turnovers per game.

Julie Vanloo – Guard, Washington Mystics

Julie Vanloo represented Team Belgium at the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Team Belgium finished in fourth place and just off the podium as they lost a close bronze medal game to Team Australia. In the Group Phase, they defeated Germany lost to the United States and won against Japan. In the quarter-finals, they defeated Spain. However, in the semi-finals, they lost to France which is how they ended up in the bronze medal game.

Julie Vanloo was terrific in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. In the first game of the Group Phase, she scored 18 points, had 6 assists but also 6 turnovers and 2 steals in their win against Team Germany. In the second game of the Group Phase, she struggled as she scored 11 points, had 4 rebounds, 5 assists and 2 turnovers in their loss versus the United States. In the third game of the Group Phase, she struggled again as she scored just 5 points, had 6 assists, 1 steal and 1 turnover in their blowout win over Team Japan.

In the quarter-finals, Julie Vanloo scored 13 points, had 3 rebounds, 7 assists but had 9 turnovers in their win over Team Spain. In the semi-finals, Julie Vanloo scored 11 points, 5 rebounds, 6 assists, 1 block but had 7 turnovers in their loss versus Team France, the host nation. In the bronze-medal game, Julie Vanloo played a terrific game despite losing to Team Australia in a close loss. She had a double-double of 26 points, 11 assists, 3 turnovers and 1 steal. As stated before, she played well and averaged 14 points per game, 6.8 assists per game, 4.7 turnovers per game, 0.8 steals per game and 0.2 blocks per game. She also shot 42.3% from the field, 75% from 2 point FG and 29.4% from three. She also shot 100% from the free throw line.

She was effective in helping Belgium perform well at the Summer Olympics and have their best performance as they finished in 7th place at the Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games. Despite being a WNBA Rookie, this was actually Julie Vanloo’s second Olympics Games appearance as she made her Olympics debut in Tokyo 2020 as a 27 year old.

That wraps up the coverage of the WNBA Rookies who played in the Paris 2024 Summer Olympic Games. It is hard to make a WNBA team roster and with limited availability, both Aaliyah Edwards and Julie Vanloo got the oppurtunity of a lifetime to represent their home countries. Both will now get to treasure their experience and get back into WNBA mode as WNBA action has resumed and I will discuss how the rookies performed in their first week back in next week’s WNBA Rookies Watch blog post,