Fuel for the Fire: Why Lucy Olsen chose Townsville, Australia, to build on her rookie season in Washington

Next, Olsen will take that slogan global. She recently signed with the Townsville Fire in Australia’s WNBL for the 2025-26 season. She’ll head there shortly after the Mystics’ season ends to try to build on her WNBA experience — and perhaps win a WNBL championship.

“I’m stoked she’s coming over to the WNBL,” Mystics guard and Australia native Jade Melbourne told The Next on Sunday. “… I’m biased, but I think it’s one of the best leagues in the world under [the WNBA], and I’m excited. Her game style is going to suit the system really well … in Townsville.”

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Olsen, a 5’10 guard, was drafted 23rd overall by the Mystics in April, and she became the first second-round pick to make a Mystics roster out of training camp since Myisha Hines-Allen in 2018. But she has played mostly off the ball despite playing point guard in college, and her minutes have been inconsistent. She played 37:31 in a game when two other guards were out with injuries, but she didn’t play at all in three other games. Partly as a result, she’s gone scoreless in six games she’s played in, but she’s also scored 14 or more points twice.

On the season, she is averaging 3.5 points, 1.0 rebounds and 1.0 assists in 10.7 minutes per game. She is making 47.2% of her 2-pointers and 37.9% of her 3-pointers.

Olsen’s teammates and coaches have praised her for staying ready, getting extra work in and continuing to support her teammates as her minutes have fluctuated. Veteran guard Brittney Sykes has even referred to her as “PPP,” which stands for points per possession, because of how she can score in a hurry. Olsen is particularly known for her midrange game, but she’s also shooting better from 3-point range than she did in college.

“Her midrange is one of the coolest things I’ve seen about her game,” Melbourne said. “The way she can just get up and release it from the top of her head, it’s really unique.”

Olsen is taking only about 2.2 shots per game from the midrange or behind the arc, but her shooting is important to Mystics head coach Sydney Johnson because it can pull defenses away from the paint. Washington has relied heavily on paint touches this season, taking a league-high 58% of its shots from there.

“We can’t live off of just points in the paint,” Johnson told reporters after Olsen scored a career-high 19 points in 17 minutes against the Minnesota Lynx on July 3. “So … it’s a real shot in the arm for us when she comes out and plays like she did today.”

As the season has progressed, Olsen has settled into her role, and her confidence has shown. Early in the season, she told The Next, she would get so excited to check in that she’d be sped up on the court. Now, she’s found a better pace and adjusted to the WNBA’s physicality.

“My mind is working faster than it was when I first got here,” Olsen said on Saturday. “I think there’s been a lot of improvements, and I’m just hoping to learn more and keep improving.”

“She comes out and just has that confidence,” veteran center Stefanie Dolson told The Next on Saturday. “And that’s all you ask from the rookies, really, is come in and don’t be scared, because a lot of vets can tell when rookies are scared, and she’s one of the ones that isn’t. She’s talented, plays really hard and kind of executes everything.”

For Johnson, what stands out is that Olsen hasn’t let her limited role shake her confidence in what she can be as a professional player.

“There may be more [in her] than just what we need,” he said on June 28. “And … her balance of bringing what the team needs but [having] an inner confidence in her own abilities, that’s not an easy thing to do, and she has held strong to that.”

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In Australia, Olsen should get to show more of her game than she has in Washington, particularly her point guard skills. Several European teams expressed interest in her, according to her agent, Orlando Castaño Jr., but she was hesitant to play a long overseas season following her college and WNBA seasons. The WNBL season is shorter: The 2025-26 regular season runs from mid-October to early February, with teams playing one to two games per week. That schedule will give her more rest, and it means that she won’t report late for WNBA training camp in 2026, which was also important to her.

“EuroLeague is just long, so I wasn’t ready for that yet,” Olsen said. “But Australia was just the best of both worlds, and luckily it worked out.”

“[The WNBL is] a really good league. It’s really competitive, but it’s really short,” Mystics guard Sug Sutton, an American who played for the Fire in 2021-22, told The Next on Sunday. “So you don’t have to be there for a long period of time, especially if you’re first starting your overseas career, because sometimes that can be overwhelming. … It’s not a heavy load on your body. And I think that’s a good thing, and I think that’s gonna be a benefit for Lucy.”

Before Olsen signed, she spoke with Townsville head coach Shannon Seebohm over the phone. She said they had a good rapport right away and described him as “super intense but also fun.” Melbourne and Sutton likewise spoke highly of Seebohm and the player development Olsen will get with Townsville.

“A lot of people that go play for Shannon come out of the season a better player,” Melbourne said. “And I think Lucy being a young player, [she] wants to keep improving. She’s a basketball junkie. So is Shannon. …

“She’ll have access to the court whenever she wants, and I think that’s really going to suit her, because we all know Lucy loves to live in the gym. So I think she’ll find it really, really good up there. And I think the teammates and the pieces she’s got around her will really bring out the best in her.”

Last season, the Fire finished third in the WNBL in the regular season and runners-up in the playoffs. Their roster included former top-five WNBA draft picks Nia Coffey and Lauren Cox.

Both Melbourne and Sutton described Townsville as a place where people are passionate about and show up for women’s basketball. Last season, the Fire had the highest average attendance in the WNBL and five of the 10 largest single-game attendances.

For Olsen, there was also the appeal of going to Australia — a place on her bucket list, along with Japan and somewhere she can see the northern lights. As a bonus, the WNBL takes place during Australia’s summer, and Townsville has beaches “everywhere,” Sutton said.

All of that seemingly adds up to a place where basketball can keep being fun for Olsen and she can keep improving as a lead guard and an all-around player.

“Australia just seems like a great place,” Olsen said. “… [It’s] somewhere I’ve always wanted to go anyway, so basketball bringing me there is the best-case scenario.”

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