Career: Tennessee (USA-NCAA)

Starting her international career by winning a gold medal at the 2004 Junior World Championship Qualifying Tournament, Candace Parker is one of the USA’s bright stars who will be competing in their first Olympics in Beijing. Named to the 2006 USA National Team while still playing at the University of Tennessee, Parker’s senior team debut was nothing less than impressive. Ad the youngest member and one of just three returning collegians named to the USA Team that won the Australia-hosted 2006 Opals World Challenge, Parker was named to the All-Tournament Team after finishing as the USA’s leading scorer (18.0 ppg.) and second leading rebounder (8.4 rpg.). Named to the 2006 USA World Championship squad, Parker was set to learn from a pair of Olympic champs in Yolanda Griffith and Lisa Leslie, however, she became one of the ‘go-to’ players on the team after the late withdrawal of Griffith and Leslie. Parker didn’t miss a beat and averaged a team third-best 12.3 ppg. and second-best 6.1 rpg., while shooting a team-high 58.3 percent from the field. In 2007 Parker was a key cog in the USA’s gold medal machine that qualified the U.S. for the 2008 Olympics, tying Tina Thompson as the team’s high scorer with 13.8 ppg. She is playing alongside Lisa Leslie with the Los Angeles Sparks and will be very well prepared to showcase her skills in August on the world’s highest stage. The younger sister of the Toronto Raptors Anthony Parker, a former EuroLeague star with Maccabi, and fiancé of Shelden Williams of the Sacramento Kings, Parker won a pair of NCAA championships at Tennessee and earned National Player of the Year honors from numerous media outlets in 2007 and 2008.