Alanna Smith

It was volleyball and basketball Alanna Smith excelled at while a high school student at Melbourne’s Wesley College.

Her basketball international debut came in 2011 when she played for the Sapphires at the FIBA U16s Oceania Championship. She went to the FIBA U17s World Championships in the Netherlands the following year, finishing fifth.

Then it was onto the FIBA U19s Oceania Championships with the Gems in 2014, and the 2015 U19s World Championships in Russia in 2015, taking home the bronze.

Alanna made her Opals debut at the FIBA Asia Cup in Bangalore, India, where she reached double figures for the tournament averaging 10.8 points, on 58.3 percent shooting, and 5.3 rebounds.

She was part of the silver-medal winning Opals 2018 World Cup side – their best finish since winning the gold in 2006.

Then there was her impact on the US college scene during four years with Stanford University, while she studied psychology.

She finished her college career 10th in school history in scoring (1703 points), 11th in rebounds (842), second in blocks (225) and made 155 career three pointers.

She started in 74 of 143 games for Stanford from 2015-2019, which led the WBCA (Women’s Basketball Coaches Association) to name her in their 2019 All-American team.

In 2019, Alanna was selected with pick eight in the WNBA draft by the Phoenix Mercury, where she was coached by Opals head coach Sandy Brondello.

At the delayed Tokyo 2020 Olympics – in 2021 – the Opals played Belgium (L 85-70), China (L 76-74) and Puerto Rico (W 96-69) in the group phase. In the quarter-finals they squared off against the USA, losing to the eventual Olympic champions 79-55 and finishing 8th in the tournament.

Alanna played in two matches off the bench, averaging 6.6 mins per game.

She played with Adelaide Lightning in the WNBL in 2021-22, before joining WNBA side Chicago Sky in 2022.

After a period back in Australia, Alanna returned to the Sky in 2023 and produced a breakout campaign that catapulted her into Most Improved Player calculations – averaging 9.2 points, 6.6 rebounds and 1.3 blocks per game with a league-best 63 per cent clip on 2-pointers. In 2024, she signed a two-year deal with the Minnesota Lynx.

Alanna started 2024 as a member of the Opals team that punched their tickets to Paris at an Olympic qualifying tournament in Belem, Brazil, with wins over Brazil, Germany and Serbia.

At the Paris 2024 Olympics Alanna and the Opals recovered from a first up loss to a physical Nigeria team (75-62) to beat Canada (70-65) and the host nation France (79-72), which meant they automatically progressed to the knockout rounds.

A big win over Serbia in the quarter-finals (85-67) put them in a semis showdown against the USA, with the Americans' victory (85-64) sending the Opals to the bronze medal match against Belgium.

The Opals won the match 85-81 for the team's first Olympic medal since London 2012.

Alanna was consistently among the Opals' best in Paris and earned selection to FIBA's All-Star Five Tournament Team. Her standout performance was a 22-point, 13-rebound double-double effort against Serbia.

She has extremely good basketball bloodlines – her father Darren played 211 games in the NBL and her uncle Jason was a Boomer who represented Australia at the Sydney Olympics, Athens Olympics, the 2006 World Championships and won gold at the 2006 Commonwealth Games in Melbourne.