Paris 2024: Aussie 3x3 basketballer Lauren Mansfield’s heartwarming Olympics moment

The Aussies may have gone down to Canada on Tuesday in the women’s 3x3 basketball. But for Lauren Mansfield, it was her greatest day due to a heartbreaking family situation.

Australian 3x3 basketballer Lauren Mansfield says having brother Jay courtside in Paris as he battles stage four bowel cancer was “the greatest moment of my life” even as the Gangarrus were handed a brutal 22-14 revenge defeat against powerhouse Canada.

In their first of seven pool games the Australian Gangarrus got off to a nightmare 12-2 start against the Canadian team they beat twice in Japan to qualify for the Paris Olympics.

That same Canadian side includes the world’s top three ranked 3x3 basketball players and the Plouff twins (Michelle and Catherine) and 30-year-old veteran Paige Crozon went to work against a nervous Australian team debuting on the Olympic stage.

Lauren Mansfield in action for the Aussies. (Photo by Lars Baron/Getty Images)

And yet after a torrid start with a series of early fouls that put Canada to the line and too many elementary ball handling errors Australia at least bounced back to make a fight of it at the Concorde Urban Park.

The quartet of Mansfield, Anneli Maley, Marena Whittle and Alex Wilson regained some momentum late in an eight-team competition where the teams ranked third to sixth play off for the final two spots in the semi finals.

The Gangarrus enter the Paris tournament as legitimate medal contenders but also as advocates for a series of powerful causes as they seek to showcase their sport in its best light.

Maley and Whittle are teammates and partners who are proud to amplify the LGBTI+ cause, while Mansfield has only recently opened up about her own mental health battle.

She has detailed her decade-long battle with depression and body issues which she publicised after the harrowing death of a cousin to suicide as she participated in the Asian Cup tournament.

It came while brother Jay was also locked in a fight against cancer that he has kept at bay to allow him to be in Paris to watch his sister.

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“He is able to come. His last scans came back OK, so he is here watching the Games which is really exciting,” she said.

“I am really excited about that. It is the greatest moment of my life to see him watching at an Olympics. After the last couple of years, mainly with Jay trying to navigate all those emotions and feelings, I feel like this is a bit of a reward.”

That battle with crushing anxiety, depression, lack of self-worth for Mansfield has been a long journey that has involved speaking to a psychologist and finally opening up about issues so many athletes face.

Mansfield spent nearly a decade in the WNBL and made the initial Opals squad for the 2016 Olympics but has thrived since discovering 3x3 basketball three years ago.

“I think it’s just really cool to be able to speak about it. I am quite an introvert so for a long time I kind of kept that in me,” she said.

“I had to deal with it by myself for probably 10 or so years to be able to have the confidence to speak up about it in my own way, being able to write it down is my way of doing it

“Being able to go and get help and be able to speak about it and normalise it a little bit is really important to me.”

The Aussies went down to Canada on Tuesday. (Photo by David GRAY / AFP)

Her cousin Dan’s suicide came as Mansfield was attempting to qualify for the Paris Olympics, with that successful Asian Cup title paving the way for them to win the single qualifying tournament open to them given limited Basketball Australia funding.

Those bittersweet moments have led her to understand she has a “deep responsibility” to speak up about mental health causes.

“It was hard. That happened when I was about to head away for the Asian Cup when I found out and I think the hardest part was I hadn’t spoken to him for a while,” she said.

“So that was tough knowing I hadn’t checked in on him and it was probably the hardest part and then I had to watch the funeral while I was away online.

“It was tough not being able to be with my family so that’s how sport is. You miss out on things sometimes.”

“ I think it’s really an important part of life and particularly to be able to perform and play you have to be OK mentally so I am definitely an advocate for that.”