‍TORONTO, Ont. (April 21, 2022) – Canada Basketball announced Friday that Víctor Lapeña will transition into his role as Canada’s Senior Women’s National Team Head Coach on a full-time basis, effective June 1, 2022.  

Earlier this year, Canada Basketball and Lapeña agreed on a multi-year contract that will see him lead the program through the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.  At that time, it was mutually agreed that following the completion of his season with Fenerbahçe, Lapeña would leave the Turkish club to focus on the Senior Women’s National Team program, while helping to grow the game domestically and develop coaches for the Podium Pathway here in Canada.

“Qualifying for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 in February was an important first step for this program, but just one of many that will be required for us to achieve our ultimate goal of a place on the podium in Paris,” said Lapeña. “The potential I believe our group possesses is truly exciting and I’m looking forward to working closely with our players and staff over the next several years.”

In February, Lapeña led Canada to a 1-1 record at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 Qualifying Tournament to successfully qualify the team for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 in Sydney, Australia.

“Being able to add a world-class head coach like Víctor on a full-time basis to not only our Women’s High Performance program, but also to our Canada Basketball staff, is a tremendous opportunity,” said Denise Dignard, General Manager / Executive Vice-President, Women's High Performance.  “The coaching experience, technical expertise, along with the passion and energy for basketball he brings is contagious, and will undoubtedly propel our team and the game in Canada to the next level.  On behalf of Canada Basketball, we’re looking forward to welcoming Víctor and his family to Canada this summer.”

A native of Zaragoza, Spain, since 2007 Lapeña has been a mainstay within the Spanish Basketball Federation, Federación Española de Baloncesto (FEB), where he has captured 14 international FIBA medals during his years with the Senior Women’s National Team, as well as various age-group teams.

Internationally, as an assistant coach with Spain’s Senior Women’s National Team, Lapeña is an Olympic silver medalist (Rio 2016), a two-time Eurobasket champion (2013, 2017) and helped coach the team to a silver medal at the 2014 FIBA World Championship for Women.  Over the course of his 14 years with Spain, Lapeña has coached in some of FIBA’s largest competitions and tournaments, including the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games.  

Lapeña, who has also served as head coach of Spain’s women’s age-group teams, also captured a pair of silver medals at the FIBA U17 Women’s World Championships in 2012 and 2014.  A perennial powerhouse federation in Europe, he also coached Spain to gold medals at the 2011 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship for Women, 2013 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship for Women and 2015 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship for Women.

Canada was drawn into Group B for the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 in Sydney and will face Serbia (September 22), France (September 23), Japan (September 25), Australia (September 26) and Nigeria (September 27), live on Sportsnet, in the Group Phase.  

The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022 will be the 19th edition of FIBA's most distinguished women's event and will take place September 22 to October 1.