When Natalie Achonwa felt a pop in her right knee during a WNBA game last month, casting doubt on the Tokyo Olympics, her first question to the Minnesota Lynx medical staff was: how long?
With a desire to climb the medal podium in Tokyo that is sometimes so fierce it feels "choking," in what might the final Olympic appearance of her career, would there be enough time to recover?
Recovery from a strained medical collateral ligament should take her four to six weeks, Achonwa was told.
The 28-year-old from Guelph, Ont., quickly checked her calendar. Her flight to Japan to join Canada's Olympic basketball team was four weeks away to the day. Canada's opening game against Serbia -- exactly six weeks to the day.
"We were literally counting the weeks and the days," said Canadian coach Lisa Thomaidis. "So, we had full-scale panic from our end. She's just such a huge part of our team. She's the engine that makes everything go on our offence. She's the quarterback to our defence.
"So, lots of concern there."
Achonwa has been so solid in Tokyo, it's tough to imagine the team without her. In Canada's win over South Korea, she had 14 points, 10 rebounds and five assists, despite playing with a substantial brace on her knee.
Canada was set to play Spain in a pivotal final group game on Sunday.
The six-foot-three forward has been a cornerstone of the national program since joining it when she was just 16. She was 19 when she made her Olympic debut in London in 2012, and also played in 2016 in Rio. Canada lost in the quarterfinals in both Games, and with a best-ever No. 4 world ranking arrived in Tokyo aiming to finally climb the medal podium.
"I'm just so committed," Achonwa said. "You hold onto something so tightly, like I want this so bad sometimes, it's choking. It's all I can think of."
Her injury on June 12 in a win over Los Angeles briefly had her thinking the worst. Her first words to the Lynx trainer were: "I heard a pop."
Thomaidis had just finished Canadian team practice in time to catch the second half of the game, and wondered why Achonwa wasn't playing. A post on social media said the forward "would not return" due to injury.
Achonwa is no stranger to knee injuries. In her senior season at Notre Dame in 2014, she caught a pass and went for a layup at the rim when she tore her ACL in her left knee. She still went No. 9 to Indiana in the WNBA draft, and joked afterward that the cumbersome pre-surgery knee brace clashed with her draft-night red dress.
According to Minnesota's medical staff, if anyone could bounce back in time to play in Tokyo, it was Achonwa.
"That's the bright side of having previous knee injuries, they said was if it wasn't you, and you didn't know how to tackle rehab, you didn't know your body, you didn't know what regular knee pain was versus MCL pain, they weren't sure I would have been back," she said.
Achonwa said that as committed as she was to get back on the floor, the Lynx and Canada Basketball were equally committed. Minnesota's facility is adjacent to the Mayo Clinic, where Achonwa worked on her rehabilitation when her team was out of town. When they were in town, she worked with the team's trainers.
Achonwa presented both the Lynx and Canada Basketball with detailed progress reports every three days. Canada Basketball flew a staff member to Minnesota for an assessment.
"The desire and the commitment for me to be back was not just in me," Achonwa said. "And I think that's what really pushed me, from a Lynx standpoint ... The communication and the commitment between them all, I don't know if I would be back at the Olympics if I wasn't with the Lynx.
"That's one of the reasons I decided to sign with the Lynx (last off-season) is that they see me as way more than just a basketball player who puts on a Lynx jersey, they see the multi-levels and the things that go into me, and they understand how much representing my country means to me. Their commitment to not only get me back on the court to play for them, but to get me on the court so I can live out this journey and this Olympic dream, was echoed from Day 1."
Thomaidis treasures Achonwa's leadership on and off the court. The Notre Dame grad has grown into one of the strongest voices in the women's game in her six seasons as a pro, and last year won the WNBA's Dawn Staley Community Leadership Award.
"She's been at the forefront of our team and our vision and our purpose for a number of years," Thomaidis said. "So when we do get her in the environment and with us for an extended period of time, the impact that she has on the up-and-coming future players for Canada Basketball is just huge.
"She has the bigger perspective always in mind, being able to represent the country and represent our program with so much pride and passion, that's really important to her and to everyone on this team. And she really exudes it, passes that on to the young ones what it's really all about, it's more than basketball."
Achonwa has two more years on her Lynx contract, and beyond that isn't sure what her basketball future holds. There's a good chance she'll close the curtains on her Olympic career after Tokyo. Her body can only take so much.
"I can't give you a definite answer on that one," she said. " I'm very see-where-it-goes, but feels like it could be the last one.
"It feels like I'm so young," she added with a laugh. "But it's a lot of years on this body, a lot of games, a lot of miles."
Because of the strict COVID-19 protocols in Tokyo, the team has significant downtime in the athletes village. They either play Uno or board games, or watch their Canadian Olympic teammates on TV. Achonwa and the team boarded the bus after practice on Friday to learn Canada's women's eight crew had captured gold.
"Another medal for women, I'm loving it," she said.
The quarterfinals of the Tokyo women's basketball tournament are Wednesday.
Canada's men's team hasn't made an Olympic appearance since 2000 in Sydney. Canada lost to the Czech Republic in the semifinals of a last-chance qualifying tournament last month.
This report by The Canadian Press was first published July 31, 2021.
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