Andrea Blackwell is a true pioneer of women’s basketball in Canada

Long before the Women’s National Basketball Association was formed in 1996, there was Andrea Blackwell. No exactly a household name, but one of the best female basketball players of her era.

Blackwell helped Canada to a bronze medal at the 1986 world championship in the Soviet Union and was on the squad that finished fourth at the 1984 Olympics in Los Angeles.

With no elite, organized league in North America in the 1980s, Blackwell spent a dozen years playing in professional women’s leagues in Italy, Belgium and Greece. Her final Olympic appearance for Canada was at the 1996 Olympics.

After her playing days were over, Blackwell coached at Bishop’s University in Quebec and St. Lawrence College in Kingston. That’s where QNet Sports reporter Allison Forbes caught up with Blackwell for this feature-length interview in part two of our women in sports series.