Waterford graduate and former Badger Rae Lin D'Alie will play for Italy in Tokyo Olympics

 

BURLINGTON, Wis. (CBS 58) -- Waterford graduate Rae Lin D'Alie is heading to Tokyo.

The 5'3" guard has become one of the biggest stars of 3x3 Basketball playing in Italy. With one final shot to send Italy to the Olympics, D'Alie found nothing but net.

"I was 0-9 in the first eight minutes and then closed the game differently than I started. To hit the shot like that it was really special," said D'Alie, after winning the Universal Olympic Qualifier Tournament MVP.

D'Alie, or Rae Rae as she is known in FIBA 3x3 basketball, has been playing professionally in Italy since she graduated from Wisconsin in 2010. Her team is the first Italy basketball team of any kind heading to the Olympics since 2004. She began playing 3x3 in 2016 and has had great success. She started thinking about the dream the first year she started playing writing down the goal in her journal.

"I prayed and I said God, 'today i watched the opening ceremony of the rio olympics. This summer you allowed me to play 3x3 in front of the italian national team. I would love to be on the italian national team and go to tokyo'," said D'Alie. "Now sitting back here, being back here after five years i'm, just like 'oh yeah this is a whirlwind and it's pretty awesome'."

The 33-year old D'Alie is the second youngest of six kids. She left Wisconsin as the all-time leader in games played (132) and started (131). She is second in career assists with 483 and is in the top ten in program history in steals. Professionally she led Italy to a 3x3 FIBA World Cup win and was named MVP.

Plenty of success on the court already, but she wants more.

"I think every Olympian is going to do one thing. You're going to compete to be the best and that's what we're gonna try to do," said D'Alie. "I'm not tempted to just go to the Olympics. Some people maybe, but that's not my personality."

D'alie and Italy will be one of eight teams on the women's side including the United States. She returns to Italy on July 1st and will head to Italy on the 16th. Play begins on July 24th.