Yvonne Ejim headed to 2024 Olympics with the support of a province on her shoulders

Yvonne Ejim’s first time on a plane was daunting. She was 13 years old, trying to read her boarding pass properly and not miss her flight. Her mom had told her the basics and to make sure she had all her belongings but it still felt a bit overwhelming. All this just to compete in a basketball tournament? She sat at the gate and wondered if she was at the right one or if her ticket was even valid.Almost a decade has passed and Ejim now deftly maneuvers through the ticket lines and security checkpoints, wearing headphones and not worried about her destination. The journey will be the most special part of this particular summer. For in just a week, a little girl that had to fly alone to leave Alberta and compete in youth tournaments in Toronto is going to be representing Canada in the 2024 Olympics in Paris. She, along with the nation whose colors she will be wearing, have come a long way. “There’s a lot more opportunity now,” Ejim says. “When I was playing, there was no opportunity. It may not be a two mile walk to find a basketball gym but it was a four hour flight to Toronto.”Yvonne is the oldest sister in a family of 11 children, the daughter of Nigerian-Canadian dual nationals. She had four older brothers — Melvin, Kenny, Deon and Ryan — that helped cultivate her love of basketball. But initially, she was a tennis player. “Serena Williams, she’s still kind of like my idol to this day,” she says. As her brothers excelled on the hardwood, Yvonne started to follow them, gravitating towards basketball. Melvin, a former star at Iowa State, was a particularly big influence on her and helped her develop her skills as a player. If you were to ask her now who was the bigger influence — Melvin or Serena Williams — she’d have a tough time answering. “I mean…both?” says Yvonne with a laugh. “Can I pick both?” As her brothers progressed in their careers, she started to find her footing amongst the Canadian elite as well. At 13, she was selected for a U16 cadet camp. Despite being much younger and smaller than most of her counterparts, Yvonne was able to see a path to playing for the senior team one day. “I was super scared,” she remembers. “I think I left camp still not knowing what was going on. But I think the next time, just having been around [Team Canada], being comfortable and understanding a bit of their play, I think that really set in stone that I can do this.” It wasn’t until 2022 that Team Canada’s Olympic head coach, Victor Lapena, started to take notice of her. The Federation put on a pseudo-U-23 Tournament called GLOBL JAM and Ejim brought home gold. Impressed by her ability to play any position on the floor and do whatever was asked of her, Lapena asked her to try out for the senior team. Rather quickly, she found herself playing in the FIBA AmeriCup with Team Canada. At just 22 years old, she is a part of what may be a golden generation up north. Along with Aaliyah Edwards and Laeticia Amihere, Ejim represents a coming wave of players that, when combined with the current crop of U19 guards, could make Team Canada as good as any in the world. But before she could zero in on the goal of being an aspirational figure for young girls across the country, she had to impress the veterans. “I was so excited, nervous, scared, anxious, like all of the emotions,” she explains. “You have to adjust quickly to a lot of things. I think it just takes that next level of wanting to be there.” With longtime national teamers and WNBA veterans like Natalie Achonwa, Sami Hill and Shay Colley welcoming her with open arms, Ejim found a place on the roster. Team Canada won Bronze at the 2023 AmeriCup and qualified for the 2024 Olympics. At one point in the NCAA regular season, she asked her Gonzaga head coach Lisa Fortier to release her so she could compete in Canadian qualifier games for Paris. Now, she hears that there will be a small pocket of Spokane, Washington rooting as hard for Team Canada as Team USA when the games begin. “I’m just grateful,” she says of the support she’s received from Zags fans. “I think, if anything, they’ve always been supportive of me. So whatever support they can give — give to my team — I’m very grateful for it.” Ask most Gonzaga supporters and they’ll say she’s pretty easy to root for. In addition to her personality, which has already won over fans who see her regularly around Spokane, she’s one of the most dominant players in program history. In 2024, she took home the Becky Hammon Mid-Major Player of the Year award, averaging 19.7 points and 8.7 rebounds per game while guiding the Bulldogs to their first NCAA Sweet 16 since the 2014-2015 season. By the end of the year, Ejim was named an Honorable Mention All-American, WCC Player of the Year and WCC Defensive Player of the Year.“[It was] probably one of the most fun times I’ve had playing basketball,” Ejim says. “The group of girls that we had, I mean we had almost our whole team come back. I think it was very special and a great time to be in.” Now, with a little bit of time off, she enters the 2024 Olympics fresh and ready to play. The games, the new food — she said she’s willing to try the escargot! — and the experience will be special. But what Yvonne is really excited about is the clothes. In Spokane, she’s known as a bit of a thrifter with a passion for crafting a tunnel fit worthy of the WNBA. “I get so excited because I see a lot of different fits,” she explains. “Everyone looks so cool or so unique or like themselves and I kind of want to be able to be in a space that does that because we have a couple tunnel fits at Gonzaga but not as much. It’s every game for the W.” Her teammate, Maud Huijbens, got her into the activity. Now they’re thrifting buddies, taking freshman forward Lauren Whittaker with them whenever they’re all free. They get some recommendations from their coaches and head to Value Village or Global Neighborhood Thrift & Vintage. But nothing compares to what she’s about to wear in Paris for the opening ceremonies. “I’ve been anticipating this gear since they first told me to start packing!” says Ejim, laughing. “When they first sent out the form to fit for all of the gear, I was like ‘I don’t know how I’m gonna get everything back!” Luckily, her Dad and brother are coming to Paris, as are some friends. There’s a few extra bags to go around and since Melvin has his own Team Canada gear from his playing days, Yvonne thinks she’ll have a full accounting on the way home. But past the fashion, the fun and being in France, the sentiment of representing the flag matters deeply to her. A dual-national Nigerian-Canadian, who still craves her mothers Ẹ̀bà whenever she comes home, Ejim wants to be an inspiration for young girls all over her country. A representation not often seen in the past but one increasingly more visible in Canadian culture. “In Canada, I feel like we have a lot of diversity so there’s definitely people that I knew that had similar experiences to me,” she says. “I’m very happy and very proud that I got to grow up in that environment and in that culture, learn a lot of that stuff and take what I’ve learned from that into different areas of my life.” As she prepares to float the Seine, draped in a Lululemon bomber jacket embroidered with Canadian art, Ejim sees herself as a leader in a cultural and athletic movement. One that, along with others in her generation, will hope to inspire the nation and every young girl with a dream of playing basketball on the biggest stages. Just like her idol did.“I’m trying to do what I can for the sport of basketball [in Canada],” she says. “Kind of like Serena did for the sport of tennis.” Thanks for reading No Cap Space WBB! Subscribe for free and get all our stories, podcasts, videos and features the minute they are published. Tap in with us! This is a public episode. If you would like to discuss this with other subscribers or get access to bonus episodes, visit nocapspace.substack.com