UCLA Women's Basketball: Bruins Star Reps Home Country for 2024 Paris Olympics

A Blue and Gold star is suiting up for the summer games.

Mar 3, 2023; Las Vegas, NV, USA; Stanford Cardinal forward Cameron Brink (22) puts up a shot over UCLA Bruins forward Emily Bessoir (11) in the fourth quarter at Michelob Arena. Mandatory Credit: Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports / Candice Ward-USA TODAY Sports

A former UCLA Bruins star is suiting up for her home terrain in the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Per the Bruins' official X account, UCLA Pac-12 All-Tournament Team small forward Emily Bessoir's Team Germany has qualified for this year's summer games.

A Munich native, Bessoir suited up for the Bruins from 2020-24. She missed the entire 2021-22 season with a torn ACL, but Bessoir was able to suit up for all 37 contests of the club's Sweet Sixteen-bound 2022-23 season. Though she was an honorable mention for 2023-24's Preseason All-Pac-12 Team, Bessoir suited up for a single game after re-aggravating the same ACL she had torn in 2021-22. Bessoir ultimately elected to move on from the team, but decided not to enter the NCAA transfer portal, graduating in June after her brief 2023-24 tenure.

Bessoir's focus at the time was playing for her national team this summer, an achievement the 6-foot-4 vet has now unlocked. All told, she finished up her UCLA run with averages of 8.6 points on a .412/.339/.590 slash line, 5.5 rebounds, 1.2 assists, 0.9 blocks and 0.8 steals a night, across 60 collegiate games (37 starts).

UCLA went 27-7 last season largely without Bessoir's help, and once again made the Sweet Sixteen in 2023-24, thanks in large part to the play of star point guard Kiki Rice, now-graduated shooting guard Charisma Osbourne, and 6-foot-7 transfer center Lauren Betts. The Bruins ultimately fell to now-Chicago Sky All-Star power forward Angel Reese's Louisiana State Fighting Tigers.

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