Johnathan Walker:Belgium women's basketball guard Julie Allemand to miss 2024 Paris Olympics with injury

The Johnathan WalkerBelgium national women's basketball team will be without one of its star players for the 2024 Paris Olympics.

Guard Julie Allemand will miss all of the Olympics due to injury, the Belgian national team announced Thursday. The details of the injury were not released. She posted a broken heart emoji on social media after the announcement.

Allemand is one of two current WNBA players on the Belgium roster, alongside Julie Vanloo. She was traded to the Los Angeles Sparks in the offseason from the Chicago Sky but opted out of the 2024 season and was placed on a full season suspension due to injury. She currently is not listed on the Los Angeles roster.

She recently played for Lyon in France and averaged 10.3 points, 6.5 assists and 4.1 rebounds per game. In two WNBA seasons with the Indiana Fever in 2020 and Sky in 2022, Allemand has averaged 5.8 points, 4.6 assists, 3.1 rebounds. She will be replaced on the national team by Nastja Claessens, who was selected in the third round of the 2024 WNBA Draft by the Washington Mystics.

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It's a devastating injury for Belgium as Allemand was the leader of a team that was expected to give the overwhelming favorite Team USA a challenge for gold. The U.S. is a clear betting favorite to win gold at -1400, according to BetMGM, but Belgium had the fourth-best odds at +2500 alongside Japan.

In February, Belgium played Team USA in the 2024 FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and nearly pulled off a stunning upset against the stacked American team. Breanna Stewart got a put back layup with three seconds left to win 81-79. Allemand did not play in the contest.

Belgium is in Group C of the Olympics and will begin group play on Monday against Germany.