Olson, Swords Named McDonald's All-Americans
1/23/2024 4:05:00 PM | Women's Basketball
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- For the first time in program history, the University of Michigan women's basketball team had two players named McDonald's All-Americans in Olivia Olson and Syla Swords as the team was announced on Tuesday afternoon (Jan. 23). U-M is one of six schools to have multiple 2024 signees named McDonald's All-Americans.
Michigan will now boast three McDonald's All-Americans in the program next season. Olson and Swords are the program's first high school signees to earn the honor, with Greta Kampschroeder (2021 McDonald's All-American) transferring to Michigan after one season at Oregon State.
Olson has been ranked as high as No. 3 in the 2024 class, with that marking the highest-ranked recruit to commit to Michigan basketball -- man or woman -- in nearly 30 years. Currently ranked No. 15 as a five-star recruit by ESPN, she recently topped the 2,000-point mark of her high school career. Olson helped Benilde-St. Margaret's to the 2023 Minnesota Class 3A basketball state championship after scoring 19 points in the final game. During her junior campaign, she averaged 25.6 points, 12.6 rebounds and 3.6 assists per game en route to earning Class 3A Tournament MVP honors, along with All-Metro and All-State first-team honors.
Olson has been named to the Star Tribune Dream Team multiple times, has participated in back-to-back Curry Camps hosted by Stephen Curry, was at the 2022 and 2023 Under Armour Elite 24 Camp and was named to the 2023 UAA Finals 17U first team following her final AAU season with the Minnesota Fury.
She also has USA Basketball experience, helping the 2021 U16 team to the FIBA Americas gold medal. During her time in the red, white and blue, she averaged 10.2 points, 4.2 rebounds and 2.3 assists per game after starting all six games.
Swords is the highest-ranked recruit in program history at the time of signing her National Letter of Intent, coming in at No. 11 in the latest ESPN rankings as a five-star recruit. As a senior this season, she has already recorded a triple-double and has Long Island Lutheran ranked as the No. 2 program in the country. She helped LuHi to the Nike Tournament of Champions title in 2022, stuffing the stat sheet with eight points, eight rebounds, six assists and four steals in the final game. In her first season at LuHi as a junior, she averaged 14.4 points, 6.1 rebounds, 4.8 assists and 1.5 steals per game to guide the Crusaders to the 2023 Class AA New York State Federation Tournament of Champions crown. Swords scored 27 points in the championship game and led her team all season long from behind the three-point line, making 66 three-pointers at a 42.3 percent clip. She played AAU for Kia Nurse Elite, which she helped win the 2023 EYBL championship at Boo Williams.
On the international front, Swords has become a stalwart for Canadian national teams over the past several years. This past summer, she won a pair of bronze medals in a 14-day span, collecting third place at both the FIBA U19 World Cup and as part of the 2023 AmeriCup team. She was the youngest member of the Canadian AmeriCup team, appearing in all eight games. She had a breakout game against Colombia in the group phase, turning in 12 points on 5-for-6 shooting in just 14 minutes of action. At the World Cup, she was named to the All-Tournament second team after averaging 12.7 points, 3.4 rebounds, 2.1 assists and 1.3 steals in 29.9 minutes per game. She saved her best performance for last, turning in 26 points, six rebounds, six assists and two steals in 42 minutes as Canada beat France in overtime for the bronze medal. She was the only high schooler named to the Canadian Senior Women's National Team roster for the FIBA Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament.
