Kristi Harrower

Australian basketball player

Kristi Harrower (born 4 March 1975) is an Australian professional basketball player, who three times (2000, 2004 and 2008) won the silver medal with the Australian Women's Team at the Summer Olympics, and also the bronze in 2012. She played in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) from 1998 to 2005 for the Phoenix Mercury and Minnesota Lynx.

Harrower was born on 4 March 1975, She is tall She was featured in the WNBL's 2009 league calendar. Harrower had an injury in 2012 to her Achilles and could not run on it for a while.

Harrower is a guard. She is an Australian Institute of Sport alumni and the programme considers her one of their success stories. As a competitor at the 1994 Australian Under 20 national championships, Harrower won the Bob Staunton Award. In 1992 and 1993, she had a scholarship with the Australian Institute of Sport. In 2008, she was featured as a basketball star on myFiba.

She entered the WNBA as an undrafted player. She played for the Lynx in 2003, where she averaged 2.8 points and 2.3 assists per game. She was the team's general manager that year. She played for the Bendigo Spirit in 2011/2012. Her father, Bernie Harrower, was the team's coach. In January 2012, she made a clutch shot for her team that helped them beat Canberra. On 7 January 2015 Harrower announced her retirement from the WNBL, also stating that she was 16 weeks pregnant. Her 18 year WNBL career began in 1994. After 10 years in the league, she was gone for 7 years (2001–2007) but returned in 2008 and continued until retirement. Harrower was league MVP once (2009 2010 season) and selected 7 times for the WNBL All Star Five. She played on championship teams in 1994 with the Adelaide Lightning, and 2012 2013 and 2013–2014 with the Bendigo Spirit. In 2013, she was the WNBL Defensive Player of the Year. She was a member of the 1998 Australian Senior Women's Team that won a bronze medal at the World Championships in Germany. She was a member of the 1999 Australian senior women's team. In 2002, she was a member of the Australian Senior Women's Team that won a silver medal in the World Championships in Spain. She was a member of the Australian senior team that won a silver medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. She played in eight games at the 2004 Games, where she averaged 8 points, 3.8 rebounds and 2.8 assists per game. Harrower was a member of the 2005 Opals. In 2006, she was a member of the Australian women's senior team that won a gold medal at the World Championships in Brazil. In March 2007, she was named to the national team what would prepare for the 2008 Summer Olympics. In 2008, she did not participate in the Good Luck Beijing 2008 held in China in the lead up to the Olympics because of a commitment to her European club. She was a member of the 2008 Summer Olympics Australian women's team that won a silver medal at the Olympics. In June 2010, Harrower was viewed by national team coach Carrie Graf as one of a quartet of strong players that would represent Australia in a tour of China, the United States and Europe in the next few months. In July 2010, she participated in a four day training camp and one game test match against the United States in Connecticut. In 2010, she was a member of the senior women's national team that competed at the World Championships in the Czech Republic. She missed a three game test series against China in Queensland in July 2011 because of an injury. In July 2011, she participated in the Olympic qualification competition. She was returning to the team following an injury. Harrower was named to the 2012 Australia women's national basketball team. In February 2012, she was named to a short list of 24 eligible players to represent Australia at the Olympics.