Shona Thorburn

Biography

Shona Thorburn made her international debut for Canada at the 1998 World Youth Games, held under the patronage of the IOC. She joined the senior national team in 2002 and competed at the 2003 Pan Am Games. Thorburn then took an eight-year hiatus from the national team program, returning in 2011 to compete at the FIBA Americas where Canada won bronze. She was part of the team that qualified for London 2012 where she averaged 25.3 minutes, 10.5 points and 4.5 assists in six games. Thorburn helped Canada qualify for the 2014 FIBA World Championship where she was part of the fifth place finish, the best result by the Canadian women since 1986. During her freshman year at the University of Utah, Thorburn led the team in assists, minutes played and defensive rebounds. In her final season in 2005-06 she averaged 11.9 points per game and a career-high 7.1 assists per game in 34 starts as the Utes advanced to the Elite Eight of the NCAA National Championship Tournament. Drafted seventh overall by the WNBA’s Minnesota Lynx in 2006, Thorburn played parts of two seasons with Minnesota and Seattle before heading to Europe for stints in Spain (2007-12) and France (2012-16). Returning to Canada in 2015 for the Pan American Games in Toronto, Thorburn recovered 11 rebounds off the bench en route to the gold medal game where Canada defeated the United States. Thorburn was also a part of the team that won gold at the 2015 FIBA Americas Championship, qualifying Canada for Rio 2016.

Getting to know…

Family: Parents Andrew Thorburn and Aubrey Nicholson… Younger sister Ashley Orton… Family moved to Canada in 1993… Getting into the Sport: Started playing basketball at age 8 but took some years off to participate in other sports… Outside Interests: Graduated from the University of Utah in 2006 (Communications)… Enjoys fine food and cooking… Relaxes in the offseason by camping, biking, and hiking… Odds and Ends: Favourite motto: “Success consists of going from failure to failure without loss of enthusiasm”… Always chews the same kind of gum: Dentyne Ice Intense… Role model is Utah coach Elaine Elliott… Nickname: Sho…