Olympic Legends - Hortencia

RIO DE JANEIRO (Olympics) - Ask anyone on the basketball courts of Sao Paulo or Rio de Janeiro to identify the country's most celebrated player in the women's game and the response is likely to be Hortencia Marcari.

Nicknamed 'The Queen', Hortencia joined the national side at the age of 15 and went on to make 137 appearances for Brazil.

The most successful was the 1994 FIBA World Championship for Women in Australia, when she fired the Brazilians to the gold medal with a tournament-best average of 27.6 points per game.

Hortencia also made her mark at the Olympics.

Two years before Australia, the 1.74m shooting guard was the leading scorer of the Barcelona Games.

She averaged 18.8 points per game, with her national side coming in seventh.

After the gold medal achievement in Australia, Hortencia travelled to the Atlanta Games in 1996 and helped fire the team to the silver medal - their best-ever finish at an Olympic Games.

At that event, the 36-year-old Hortencia averaged 13.3 points per contest.

In Atlanta, she saved one of her best games for the Semi-Final against Ukraine, pouring in 20 points.

Her place in the history of the sport is secure.

Hortencia became a member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in 2002, went into the Naismith Memorial Basketball Hall of Fame in 2005 and in 2007 was part of the inaugural class of the FIBA Hall of Fame.

FIBA