By Chloe Merrell
Picture by 2024 Getty Images
Hailey VAN LITHBasketball 3x3
Hayley Van Lith has so many memories of watching the Olympics that it’s hard for her to single out a favourite.
“I have a ton and from a lot of sports too, not just basketball,” the 22-year-old U.S. 3x3 basketball player begins speaking in an interview with Olympics.com before the Paris 2024 roster was officially put together.
“I think like gymnastics, soccer like all the staples. You just grow up, sitting like a kid, eyes wide open in front of the TV. That’s what I remember from it - and just seeing the emotion on the athlete’s face when they get the gold medal around their neck, or any medal: bronze, silver, whatever. That’s such an honour at that level.
“Just seeing the emotion on their faces. And you know, as an athlete, the hard work and the dedication that goes behind that.”
It’s something of a full-circle moment then that Van Lith will now go from being inspired by the Games to participating in them after she was selected for USA Basketball’s 3x3 women’s team in early June.
At 22, she will be the first U.S. athlete since 1988 to play hoops at the Games during their NCAA career with Van Lith recently coming off an Elite Eight run with Louisiana State University before transferring to Texas Christian University.
Joining her on the roster hoping to defend the Olympic title the U.S. won in Tokyo are Cierra Burdick, with whom she won the 2023 3x3 World Cup; Atlanta Dream’s Rhyne Howard; and 2023 AmeriCup winner Dearica Hamby, who is replacing the originally selected Cameron Brink following her season-ending ACL tear.
"It was just the best time"
Competing in the 3x3 at the Olympic Games is for Van Lith the fulfilment of a journey that first started in an elementary gym in Cashmere, Washington.
Deciding after watching college basketball she wanted to pursue the sport, her father Corey Van Lith wanted to help make his daughter’s dreams a reality but made no bones about the hard work it would entail. From the 4th grade onwards, the pair would rack up the hours doing additional practice all the while instilling in Hailey the value of hard work.
“He trained me all the way through high school; just me and him in the gym every day,” Van Lith said, reflecting on the early days.
“Like all parents, you know, he wants me to reach my potential, so he pushes me really hard. And most of my funny memories are of intense gym sessions, where I would give him attitude back, and it was just a back-and-forth. We look back on it now and laugh, but it was just the best time just getting to spend time with each other. In basketball, it’s just such a beautiful thing to share with other people.”
It’s a period that Van Lith looks back on with great fondness, particularly the later years in high school when her efforts began to attract wider attention. She describes basketball then as being in its “purest form”.
“It was just out of pure love in high school. There was no pressure to win like winning college games. There was no pressure to get drafted, you were just playing out of pure love.”
"Anytime USA calls you, you answer"
It wasn’t long before Van Lith found herself on USA Basketball’s radar and in 2018 the first invitation came to try 3x3.
Van Lith didn’t hesitate to answer the call when it came but admitted she was unsure quite what she was signing herself up to.
“Anytime USA calls you, you answer and you say yes. Like it doesn’t matter,” Van Lith said smiling. “But I never had heard of it. You roll the ball out when you’re messing around with your friends, do three-on-three, but I never knew it was a competitive sport.
“And then the rules are all different, the ball is different, you don’t have a coach - like it’s very player-driven. So, it was a shot in the dark for me but the committee knew my playing style would fit the game very well.”
Their senses were indeed correct. At the 3x3 U18 National Championship, as part of a team that included Aliyah Boston, Samantha Brunelle and Paige Bueckers, Van Lith walked away tournament MVP after she and the group finished the event with a 7-0 slate.
It saw the unit invited to compete at the Buenos Aires Youth Olympic Games 2018, where they again won going undefeated throughout.
In all, 2018 ended up a golden year for Van Lith who finished the year with USA’s winning U17 five-on-five team at the Women’s World Cup in Belarus.
"There’s a toughness and a grittiness about three-on-three"
Though Van Lith has continued down the tandem path of representing the USA in five-on-five and 3x3, as well as playing college hoops, it’s clear as she speaks about the half-court game that she has found something special.
“Everyone can play and be average at three-on-three but to be successful and win at the highest level with your team, there’s a special type of player that you have to get,” she explained.
“It makes you so much better as a player; it exposes your weaknesses. If you can’t shoot, if you can’t play defence, can’t dribble, you’re put in that situation at some point during every game. And it’s going to make me so much better as a player.
“It reminds me of high school where it’s just like pure love for the game,” Van Lith continued. “There’s a toughness and a grittiness about three-on-three that I feel like it fits my personality really well. So I just feel at home: I feel like it fits me perfectly.”
Results certainly suggest that Van Lith has found a home in 3x3.
In addition to her Youth Olympic Games triumph, the young U.S. star has been a member of two World Cup-winning quartets: first at the 2019 FIBA U18 3x3 World Cup in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia and then at the 2023 FIBA 3x3 Women’s World Cup in Vienna, Austria.
The latter Van Lith achieved alongside Olympic teammate and 3x3 stalwart Burdick, whose experience is set to be a key feature in Team USA’s title defence when the event begins on 30 July.
Though they will be among the favourites to medal owing to their unique combination of 3x3 pedigree and WNBA calibre, the task before the team won’t be simple. The 3x3 women’s event is packed with top teams including Canada, France and the People’s Republic of China, who will all be hunting a medal.
It will mean the quest for gold will be hard work but, fortunately for Van Lith, hard work is what she knows best.
Related content
