Rui Machida, her Olympic Games encore and everything in between
TOKYO (Japan) - It is a return to the national team after three years for Rui Machida.
The last time she played for Japan was the Tokyo Olympics, where she set a tournament record of 19 assists in the Semi-Finals against France and led all players with an average of 12.5 assists per game. She led Japan to a historic silver medal as a point guard and gained worldwide recognition for her performance.
From there, the past three years have been intense for Machida in many ways. The summer after the Olympics, she joined the Washington Mystics and played 38 games, including the playoffs. This year in April, she led the Fujitsu Red Wave to victory in the W League.
Even though she experienced many firsts and achieved great things, she also faced challenges in conditioning and injuries during the national team activities and could not make it to the roster at the Women's Basketball World Cup in the fall of 2022 and the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 in February this year.
https://www.fiba.basketball/en/events/womens-olympic-basketball-tournament-paris-2024/news/rui-machida-her-olympic-games-encore-and-everything-in-between