Michigan basketball signee makes Olympic history with Team Canada

Syla Swords, the highest-ranked recruit in Michigan women’s basketball history, will be making even more history this summer.

At just 18 years old, the incoming U-M freshman on Tuesday was named to the 12-player roster Team Canada will take to the 2024 Olympics in Paris. Swords will become the youngest basketball player to ever play for Canada in the Olympics.

Swords is a five-star prospect and the No. 4 player in the 2024 class, per ESPN’s HoopGurlz rankings. She has represented Canada at the U17 and U19 World Cups and featured for her national team as it qualified for the Olympics, in addition to her high school experience at Long Island Lutheran and as a McDonald’s All-American.

“Swords is a player with experience playing all over the world at different levels of the Canadian National Team program,” her ESPN evaluation reads. “She plays an extremely challenging schedule with her Long Island Lutheran team and with her Kia Nurse EYBL team during the summer — her summer of 2023 was one of the best in recent memory. She is an all-around player, three-level scorer and brings a glue-like intangible to her teams and makes others better.”

Canada has appeared in seven Olympics but has never medaled in the event. This summer, they will play in a group against host France, Nigeria and Australia, with the first contest scheduled for July 29.

Afterward, Swords will join a historic recruiting class under Kim Barnes Arico in Ann Arbor. She’ll play alongside fellow five-star prospect Olivia Olson, plus Mila Holloway, Aaiyanna Dunbar and Te’Yala Delfosse in the most decorated incoming group the Wolverines have ever seen.

“We always talk about finding different ways to impact the game and I think Syla embodies that,” Arico said when Swords signed with Michigan. “It’s like she is always one step ahead in figuring out what her team needs – she can find a teammate when that’s the right play, she will go get a rebound when her team needs an extra possession, she will come up with the defensive stop when her team needs the ball back. She just impacts the game in so many different ways and it doesn’t always have to be with the ball in her hands. I got to watch her play with Canada twice this past summer and think she is one of the best guards in the world.”