Locked On Women’s Basketball: Michigan freshman Syla Swords speaks about her Olympic experience

First, they talked about Swords’ experience playing at Michigan. As a freshman, Swords has started in every game she’s played in, and is averaging 15.6 points in 31.8 minutes played per game. Swords described how the recruitment process opened up more opportunities for her:

“I grew up thinking I was always going to go to Laurentian University in my hometown, Sudbury, Ontario,” Swords explained. “That’s where my dad coached, that’s where both my parents went and played. So in my mind, that was going to be ideal, like, it was going to be so cool to be able to finally go there and wear that jersey. And then once I got recruited, it was like, okay, I’m going to have options. Growing up in a northern Ontario town, [it’s] really small, you always saw the Block M, people were saying, ‘Go Blue!’ So it’s a really world renowned school globally for their success athletically and academically. So that was really attractive to me, just knowing that … if you go to Michigan, you’re already putting your foot in the door for so many opportunities. And then on top of that, I really connected with [head coach Kim Barnes Arico] and what she’s been able to do with her program. And they’ve had a lot of success in the past, you know, getting to Elite Eights and Sweet Sixteens, but still haven’t really been able to make it over that hump. So I was really just excited to be a part of a program that is going to do a lot of firsts in the future.”

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Swords, who during the 2024 Olympics became the youngest person to represent Team Canada in basketball, talked about what her Olympic dream and what the experience meant to her:

“I knew I wanted to go the Olympics before I even chose basketball,” Swords said. “I knew I wanted to get there, seeing my dad’s highlights, hearing about his stories, and he still gets emotional to this day, talking about his experiences. So really, just learning about his pride for our country, and what joy he had representing Canada on the world stage, [during] something like the Olympics, it was something always what I wanted to do, and basketball just seemed like the most viable option.”

As for how that experience impacted her game at Michigan:

“It’s definitely helped, from giving me more confidence, coming into games, coming into big match-ups, to actually improving my skills,” Swords said. “I was practicing with WNBA players every day for three or four months straight. So you’re going to get better, whether you try to or not, you’re going to have to get better. And so that’s really helped a lot. Even from [a basketball IQ] place, the game is so much faster at the pro level. So that’s helped me a lot to adjust as well.”

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Tune in to hear more from Swords about her time playing with Michigan and at the 2024 Olympics. Make sure to subscribe to the Locked On Women’s Basketball podcast to keep learning about the WNBA, women’s college basketball, basketball history and much more!