Paris Games 2024: Aussie 3x3 team calls for more funding after controversial defeat to Cananda

Australia’s 3x3 basketball team crashed out of the Olympics in heartbreaking fashion against Canada, now the details of their struggle to even make it to Paris have come to light. 

An exhausted, battered and underfunded Australian 3x3 basketball team demanded Basketball Australia step up to the plate with financial support after ending their Paris tournament in a hail of contentious umpiring calls and injury issues.

The Gangarrus’ tournament ended in a flood of tears on the cobblestones of the Concorde Urban Park after being knocked out by 3x3 superpower Canada amid a horror last three contest of their Olympic tournament.

The Australian 3x3 team had led its pool after five games before star point guard Lauren Mansfield hurt her back before a loss to Spain, leaving the team effectively one player down.

Then in the final pool round defeat with Mansfield sidelined against France, centre Marena Whittle was twice felled with shots to the head without receiving a foul.

That overtime loss thrust them into a play-in clash against the Canadian side they beat twice to qualify for Paris with a four-person team not paid or given the funding to compete in regular tournaments coming up short.

Australia’s Women's 3x3 basketball hopes were dispatched by Canada. (Photo by Buda Mendes/Getty Images)

But as Anneli Maley said as she wept inconsolably only minutes after the clash, this must be the start of Basketball Australia’s support for the streetball version of the code.

“F***, if they don’t get behind us now, there is not much we can do,” she said.

“We made the f***ing Olympics. I mean, how many people get to say that. We have come from absolutely nothing. We don’t get any support. We have so much heart and we have nothing and if anything we have gone way beyond expectations.”

“Four years from now, you better bet your arse you’re gonna see us on that podium.”

Maley’s fiance Marena Whittle was superb in the tournament as the team that includes Alex Wilson already plans to get back to this stage in 2028.

Even in the rough and tumble world of 3x3, where less fouls are called than five on five basketball, she was stunned by the officiating in the clash against France.

As the heaving stadium screamed with its noise of affirmation, Australia lost a game that would have put it straight into the medal rounds despite a stream of 50-50 calls going against it.

Australia's players were left displeased with the refereeing. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

“I think it’s interesting that we had the same referee that was making questionable calls (when we played) against Spain, crucial calls against Spain making the same sort of crucial calls against France. So I know that sport forces you to live with what it is on the day, but we can’t be making those sorts of mistakes back to back in games, especially crucial ones when we are in the top two and then a few calls send us to overtime and then out of the finals.”

Whittle and her teammates have made clear this tournament they are playing for the future of their sport, and she echoed partner Maley’s call for more financial support.

“I think the growth that we’ve made in this tournament is indicative that we just need some more support. I’m so proud of what we’ve accomplished. I’m so proud of every time we get together as the only time we get together to play 3x3, we don’t get to go on tours. Every time we do, we are learning every single time we play.

“We’ve been on two stops this year. And we just lost to a team that’s been playing 3x3 for the last year and a half solely so I think that means that the market is there.”

The Gangurrus have been treated like second class citizens compared to their more feted 5x5 counterparts.

A source told Code Sports Basketball Australia does not pay the Gangurrus or provide per Diem but, when they win tournaments, the governing body forces them to hand over 50 per cent of their winnings.

At the recent Chengdu stop, which the Aussie girls won, they scored a $21,000 winners bonus - BA pocketed $10,500, while the players took a share of the other half.

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As the Boomers and Opals flew business class to France, 188cm Maley and company were only covered by BA for economy class.

Two of the four qualified Gangurrus carried back injuries into Paris - not ideal during a 26-hour flight in economy - so they were forced to dig into their own pockets to purchase bulkhead seats to ensure extra leg room and had to stand for long periods of the flight.

Gangurrus team manager Priyanka Karunakaran - who is considered the life blood of the 3x3 team as well as the Rollers and Gliders wheelchair teams - wasn’t provided with access to the Olympic Village so was forced to coordinate the 3x3 campaign offsite.

During the Ballin’ in Melbourne series, part of the Olympic build up, Code Sports has been told the Gangurrus bizarrely had to source and pay for their own food at John Cain Arena.

BA provided food at the hotel but, once the players got to the venue, they were forced to fend for themselves.

“For the most part, there was no access to anything, so players just didn’t eat all day,” the source told Code Sports.

Originally published as Paris Games 2024: Aussie 3x3 team calls for more funding after controversial defeat to Cananda