Temi Fagbenle
| Minnesota Lynx | |
|---|---|
| Position | Center |
| League | WNBA |
| Personal information | |
| Born |
8 September 1992 Baltimore, Maryland |
| Nationality | British |
| Listed height | 1.93 m (6 ft 4 in) |
| Listed weight | 79.5 kg (175 lb) |
| Career information | |
| High school | |
| College | |
| NBA draft | 2016 / Round: 3 / Pick: 35th overall |
| Selected by the Minnesota Lynx | |
| Career history | |
| 2016–present | Minnesota Lynx |
Temitope Fagbenle is a British-Nigerian-American female basketball player who was drafted in 2016 to the WNBA's Minnesota Lynx. She was chosen for the Great Britain team at the 2012 Summer Olympics.
Personal life
Fagbenle was born on 8 September 1992, to a Nigerian family in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, and has eleven siblings.[1][2][3] Her family moved to London, United Kingdom when she was aged 2 and she began playing basketball at the Haringey Angels club. When she was fifteen she returned to the United States to study at Blair Academy in New Jersey.[2] She attended Harvard University before transferring to the University of Southern California for her final year of NCAA basketball.[3] As of 2012 she is 1.93 metres (6 ft 4 in) tall and weighs 79.5 kilograms (175 lb).[1]
Basketball career
During her time at Blair Academy Fagbenle was voted on to the McDonald’s All American High School team.[2] She has represented Great Britain at the under-16, 18 and 20 levels and competed at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship held in Serbia.[3]
She was named in the British team for the women's basketball tournament at the 2012 Summer Olympics in London having been fast-tracked into the senior side from the under-20s.[4] The event is scheduled to take place between 28 July and 11 August with group stage matches being held at the Basketball Arena in the Olympic park and knock-out round matches at the North Greenwich Arena (also known as The O2 Arena).[5]
Her selection for the Olympics came after a 12-month period in which she was unable to play for the Harvard Crimson women's basketball team due to the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) declaring her ineligible.[3] Fagbenle had taken the General Certificate of Secondary Education (GCSE) exam whilst at school in the UK and NCAA rules say that an athlete must be enrolled in college within two years of sitting for the exam; Fagbenle took an additional year to graduate from high school because she repeated a year after moving to the United States.[6]
References
- 1 2 "Temi Fagbenle". BBC Sport. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- 1 2 3 Gallagher, Brendan (31 May 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle to take centre stage for British team after being fast-tracked from juniors". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- 1 2 3 4 McCluskey, Jack (25 July 2012). "Temi Fagbenle on English holiday". ESPN Boston. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ↑ Telegraph Staff (22 June 2012). "London 2012 Olympics: Temi Fagbenle in Team GB women's basketball squad". The Telegraph. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ↑ "Women's Basketball". Official site of the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
- ↑ Nocera, Joe (27 January 2012). "Et Tu, Harvard?". The New York Times. Retrieved 26 July 2012.
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