“There was a point there where I’d walk in the gym and I’d think, ‘Aaahh, can we get this over with?’ You don’t want to be like that, because basketball is too good of a sport. If you’re not fully into it, that creativeness doesn’t come out.”

“I needed to step back a little bit and just work on some things I needed to get done,” said Taurasi at USA Basketball’s recent training camp held at the University of Connecticut. “And you know what? I’m excited to get back into the gym.

Diana Taurasi needed a break from competitive basketball, and she took one last year. Now, with the Rio Olympics five months away, the US women’s basketball team appears to be a big beneficiary.


In February 2015, Taurasi, 33, announced she would skip the upcoming WNBA season. It was a loss for the league, and it drew attention to the year-round grind many professional female basketball players face. They spend the summer playing in the WNBA, and the rest of the year competing for teams overseas.

It made more financial sense for Taurasi to take her break during the WNBA season. She was set to earn about $1.5 million from her Russian team, UMMC Ekaterinburg, versus her salary of $109,500 from the Phoenix Mercury, which is close to the WNBA maximum.

“It’s a vicious cycle of team after team, season after season,” said Taurasi. “Next thing you know, it’s eight straight years of basketball, which is rough on anyone. The NBA guys get their nice four months off. And after experiencing it, it’s nice.”

But she didn’t take the summer off from basketball entirely. Far from it.

“One thing I can’t do is not be in the gym,” said Taurasi. “I felt like I just needed to be in the gym by myself more.


“I always put a lot of pressure [on myself] to make sure everyone on the team is good, everyone on the team is on the right page. Mentally, that took a toll on me. So, I did a lot of strength and conditioning, changed my eating habits a little bit.

“I’m eating a lot of plants now. I took out certain stuff and, hopefully, that can make me play a little longer.”

How long remains uncertain. She will be 34 when the Olympics start in August and 38 the next time the Summer Games come around.

When asked if she looked at an older star athlete such as Tom Brady, who will turn 39 in August, to draw inspiration, Taurasi said, “It’s funny, you say that because I look at a guy like that and I say, ‘Why not?’ Then, I wake up in the morning and I say, ‘Man, I feel like [expletive].’ It’s easy to say, ‘Why not?’

“When driving to the gym is a chore, I feel like that’s when a lot of players give it up. Right now, I’m honeymooning again with basketball.”

Saber rattling

Can you name the No. 1-ranked men’s saber fencing team in the world? The countries where fencing is popular may come to mind: Russia, Italy, Hungary.

But with a win at the Warsaw World Cup in late February, the US men’s saber team claimed the No. 1 ranking. And Sherborn’s Eli Dershwitz played a big part in the team’s rise to the top.


Dershwitz, 20, who won gold at the 2015 Junior World Championships, is a precocious talent in a sport where athletes improve with age and experience. He took this year off from his studies at Harvard to focus on securing an Olympic berth.

During the individual competition in Warsaw, Dershwitz put himself in strong position to make the US Olympic team. He earned his first top-eight result on the World Cup circuit and 14 qualification points. That moved him into 10th place in the Adjusted Olympic Rankings. The fencers in the top 14 at the end of March earn Olympic berths.

So Dershwitz is one tournament away from making his first Olympic appearance.

The US team will be finalized after the Grand Prix event in Seoul in late March. There’s only one scenario in which Dershwitz’s berth would be in jeopardy: if countryman and 2012 Olympian Jeff Spear wins the Seoul event and Dershwitz places outside the top 16. But Spear, whose best finish at a World Cup event this year is 27th, faces incredibly long odds to win gold in Seoul.

Shooting star

In case you missed it, US biathlete Sean Doherty collected an impressive number of medals at the Junior World Championships at the end of January. Doherty, 20, is currently competing in the senior World Championships in Oslo, and many biathlon followers believe he will win America’s first Olympic biathlon medal in 2018.

Typically, athletes from Germany, Norway, and Russia dominate the medal stand at major international biathlon competitions. But Doherty, the youngest member of the 2014 US biathlon team, has shown dramatic improvement the past two seasons, especially when it comes to his marksmanship in a sport that combines cross-country and rifle shooting.


Doherty, who grew up skiing around his home in Center Conway, N.H., claimed a bronze (individual), silver (sprint), and gold (pursuit) at the Junior Worlds in Romania. During the 12.5-kilometer pursuit, he cleaned his final shooting stage and won by nearly 30 seconds.

The victory gave Doherty the 10th individual medal of his career at the event (four gold, four silvers, two bronze). According to US Biathlon officials, that haul makes him the most decorated youth/junior in the history of biathlon.

“I could not be happier right now,” Doherty told reporters after winning his final gold. “This race today was the perfect way to end my career as a junior. I could not have even imagined a better race. I want to say thank you to everyone who was cheering on any continent.”

Hotfooting it

A few final statistics from the US Marathon trials held in Los Angeles Feb. 13. With temperatures reaching the mid 70s, it’s no surprise that a relatively large number of men and women dropped out. Out of 164 men who started the race, 105 finished (64 percent). Out of 198 women who started, 149 finished (75 percent). Some of the high-profile runners who did not finish (and even some who did) could find their way to the Boston Marathon starting line in April.


Shira Springer can be reached at springer@globe.com. Follow her on Twitter @ShiraSpringer