Todd Barin

Web Editorial Associate

@Todd_Barin

The Lynx were back in the gym on Wednesday morning for their fourth day of training camp, but the attention was on the players that weren’t with the team.

Lindsay Whalen, Maya Moore and Sylvia Fowles were out of town due to being named to the 2016 U.S. Olympic Women’s Basketball Team. Seimone Augustus was also named to the team, but is currently playing overseas.

“When I opened up my email and saw the news, I think I was by myself walking around, and I turned and I wanted to tell somebody,” Lynx head coach Cheryl Reeve said with a smile. “It was kind of like that (as she fist-pumped), ‘yes.’ They’re like kids to you where you’re so invested, and you want all of your kids to be able to be a part of it, but to have those four, it was really special.”

Fowles and Augustus will be seeking their third-straight Olympic Gold Medal, while Whalen and Moore are looking to repeat as Gold Medalists this summer.

“There’s a lot that goes into being an Olympian, it’s not just because these guys are blessed with talent, to be a part of USA Basketball (USAB), they look for a lot of things that we look for in terms of the intangibles,” Reeve said. “They want not just the 12 best players, but they want the 12 best to represent the country in a way that’s full of teamwork, chemistry, giving of yourself, it’s not a ‘me’ situation.

The four Lynx players will be hoping to guide the rest of team USA to their sixth-straight Gold Medal in Women’s Basketball.

Coach Reeve seemed extremely proud of her players after training camp on Wednesday not only for their ability to make the Olympic team, but what being an Olympian stands for.

“We have four of the greatest superstars in the league, not just talent, but four of the greatest people,” Reeve said. “When you marry talent with tremendous individuals at the core of who they are, to be so unselfish, you can see why the Lynx are successful. People say, ‘well you have four Olympians, you better win.’ Well you can have four Olympians that aren’t very good teammates, aren’t very good people. What makes us really, really good and really special is that those four carry that torch of saying, ‘not only are we going to be great, but we’re going to be great to each other, and we’re going to be great teammates,’ and that’s what makes it really, really fun.”