The native of Durham, England played for
Marshall from 2006 to 2009. She started all 32 games in her final season with
the Herd.
After graduating, Handy realized an opportunity to compete for Great Britain
as the nation fielded its first
basketball team for an Olympics. With the games in London, Great Britain would be an automatic
qualifier. Handy said it’s an unbelievable opportunity.
“I think it’s an honor, anybody that can
sit here and say they’re going represent their country is going to be very
proud. It’s going to be emotional, definitely the first game when we hear the
national anthem. It’s really going to hit home that we’re in the Olympics.
We’re in the village right now and it’s an unbelievable experience and we
haven’t even started to play yet, so I can’t imagine what it’s going to be like
during the first tip on Saturday,” Handy said.
Since her time with the Herd, Handy has played in Greece, then in Slovakia and now in Greece again where
this past year her team won a championship in their league. But at the
Olympics, Handy gets a real home court advantage.
“Oh it’s unbelievable, and you don’t get
many opportunities like this and for it to be in London, it’s awesome and GB,
the whole nation has been really supportive of us and the things they’ve done
to try to make it more comfortable for us in the village is unbelievable. A lot
of countries won’t have what we have and it’s just a great experience and no one
can complain about it at all,” Handy said.
Handy along with her teammates arrived
at the Olympic Village last weekend to get settled before competition begins. It’s the first Olympics that Great Britain
has fielded basketball teams in either men’s or women’s competition. Handy said it’s a unique feeling to be there
from the beginning as they build the basketball program for Great Britain.
“The last four years this is what we’ve
been working for and all that hard work has paid off with the development we’ve
made and the support we’ve had in the nation. We did a nation tour. We were in Edinburgh,
Sheffield, London, we were in Cardiff. We’ve been up and down the country and
the support we’ve gotten has been great from everybody,” Handy said.
Handy says her experiences in West
Virginia at Marshall helped shape the player she’s become. She says right now
it’s about living in the moment.
“I think if you really think about it,
it might take away from your focus, but right now we’re just trying to be
focused and get done what we need to get done and be focused in practice. We’ve
had two good practices in the village and we’re just trying to keep that up and
we’re just trying to stay focused and get on with what we have to do,” Handy
said.
The Olympic Games kickoff Friday with
the Opening Ceremonies. Great Britain opens competition Saturday against
Australia.