NCAA basketball freshman Toby Fournier is ready to dunk for Duke

It was mid-August, and Toby Fournier had just driven 12 hours from her home in Toronto to Durham, N.C., with her parents and belongings. She was set to start her freshman year at Duke University and her first NCAA basketball season.

The Canadian teenager settled into the audience among all first-year Duke students and their families for an upbeat welcome session inside Cameron Indoor Stadium, one of the most storied venues in U.S. college basketball.

Duke’s coach, WNBA and Olympic champion Kara Lawson, known for her inspired speaking style, addressed the packed gymnasium. Mid-speech, the coach suddenly spotted the tall blonde Canadian in the audience and spontaneously summoned Fournier to come join her in the spotlight.

“This is a historic place that you’re in,” Lawson told the crowd. “One thing that’s never happened in Cameron before, is there has never been a women’s basketball player dunk in a game. Toby’s going to be the first this year.”

It whipped the blue-shirted students into raucous applause, and they chanted “Toby!” as Fournier blushed. It was a glimpse of the wild ovation her dunks will elicit from Duke fans, and the belief the coach has in this 19-year-old.

Fournier has been drawing crowds for years already, and views online, too, as videos of her dunking since she was 14 have gone viral, prompting headlines such as “Best girl dunker in the world” and “Air Toby.”

She’s not the first woman to dunk in games. Others have, including Michelle Snow, Lisa Leslie, Charlotte Smith, Candace Parker and Brittney Griner. But most prolific female dunkers have stood between 6-foot-5 and 6-foot-8. Fournier is different – she’s 6-foot-2 and jumps explosively to reach over the rim.

Lawson estimates there are at least 50 females across pro and college basketball today who can perform the skill, plus scattered high-school girls who tinker with it. But the number who dunk in games is far smaller. Then a player has less control over where she receives the ball and who is standing in her way.

“Toby is one of the best female in-game dunkers that I’ve seen because she does it in games and it’s like a layup for her, like she can do it a lot,” Lawson would later tell The Globe and Mail. “She doesn’t celebrate after, because it’s normal for her. She just runs back, while the people around her go crazy.”

But there’s more to Fournier than dunks. As the new women’s college season tips off Nov. 4, she is among its most anticipated freshmen, rated No. 10 in ESPN’s HoopGurlz Recruiting Rankings.

Fournier won two championships with Toronto’s Crestwood Preparatory College, one of Canada’s top girls high-school basketball programs. She astonished by dunking at the FIBA U17 World Cup in 2022 and recording this gaudy stat line against South Korea: 32 points, 17 rebounds, 5 assists, 3 steals, and 2 blocks. In 2023, she led Canada to bronze at the U19 World Cup and was a tournament all-star.

“She can score, rebound, block shots, she can run the court really well, great athlete, great lateral movement,” Lawson said. “She’s going to have impact, there’s no doubt.”

In recent years, talented and magnetic stars from Caitlin Clark to Paige Bueckers and JuJu Watkins have helped elevate women’s basketball into appointment TV. Could high-flying Fournier generate similar excitement in the years to come? Away from home as a freshman, shouldering school, new plays, and the pressure of hefty expectations, NCAA competition may be her biggest test yet.

Fournier recently made a weekend trip home to visit family in Toronto and host a youth basketball clinic at Crestwood, the red-bricked private school in a quiet tree-lined neighbourhood in north Toronto where she had been a student. A camera crew from Duke made the trip with her. She played with the kids and autographed photos for them.

When she’d been a child, Fournier hated being the tallest in her class and used to curl forward so she wouldn’t stand quite so high.

She grew up the middle child of Craig Fournier and Anais Granofsky, with older sister Zadie and younger brother Walker. She tried ballet, soccer, gymnastics and long jump, at which she won three successive city titles from Grades 4 to 6.

By 12, she was into basketball. A coach at a camp saw her jump high enough to touch the backboard, so suggested she attempt dunking a tennis ball. She dunked that easily and eventually graduated to women’s basketball. A video of her, at 14, dunking in an empty gym went viral on Instagram. It’s been viewed almost 376,000 times.

Much has happened in the years since. Her dad connected with well-known talent-spotter and coach Ro Russell, and he suggested she go to Grade 9 at Crestwood, where many other girls have flourished under coach Marlo Davis and earned NCAA scholarships, including Aaliyah Edwards (at UConn and then drafted by the WNBA’s Washington Mystics). Fournier’s parents, who drove her 45 minutes across Toronto to and from the school every day, often for 6 a.m. practices, were grateful when she could drive herself.

Fournier helped decorate the Crestwood gym walls with Ontario Scholastic Basketball Association championship banners, including in 2024 when its team packed with Division I recruits went 17-0. Word spread about her dunks, and she often drew crowds wherever she played, from Toronto gyms to the kind of big U.S. tournaments that take place over dozens of courts, feature top American players, and pull in many college scouts. Canada Basketball added Fournier to its targeted athlete-strategy program and eventually she starred for its U17 and U19 teams. She was the lone female to compete in BioSteel All-Canadian game dunk contests.

“It was fun to see her change from someone who at first I had to push to do hard things, to someone who was doing the pulling,” said her father. “She had seen what being good at basketball can bring you.”

The Crestwood coach says more than 100 schools reached out trying to recruit her. Davis’s phone was ringing off the hook.

“Her self confidence is through the roof, and you need that to be great,” Davis said. “She thinks she’s invincible, which is what all the great ones do.”

She competed in Edmonton for a spot on Canada’s team for the 2024 Paris Olympics. While some youngsters made it – including another top-ranked Canadian in the ESPN HoopGurlz freshman poll, Syla Swords – Fournier was left off.

“Obviously, I was a little disappointed,” Fournier said. “But everyone has their reasons for stuff that they do, so no hard feelings. I want to develop a relationship there and eventually go to the Olympics. I feel like 2028 is definitely going to be my year.”

One silver lining – she was home to attend her high-school prom.

“I think she should have been in Paris,” said Davis, who has also coached some teams for Canada Basketball. “I think there’s a couple kids that could have helped that team. I know that the relationship is being forged to now start that new wave of young athletes, and Toby’s going to be in the forefront of that new movement.”

Fournier received a warm welcome when she arrived at Duke to move into residence. Lawson, fresh off her return from the Paris Olympics where she won gold as a coach with Team USA, was there to greet her.

Duke’s women’s basketball team is known as The Sisterhood. Their social-media team posted a video from practice that caused excitement – of senior guard Vanessa de Jesus lofting an alley-oop off the backboard before Fournier grabbed the rebound and threw it down. It has more than 586,000 views on X.

Lawson’s big promise to the student body that Fournier will dunk in Cameron certainly got people around campus talking to the Canadian, which she has enjoyed. The girl who once felt awkward with her tallness has grown into a woman who is comfortable in her skin.

“I embrace my height now, I love being tall,” Fournier said. “When you’re around the right people, it’s something that you love to show off. You’ll see me in any room now, standing with my chest up straight.”