Toronto Tempo coach Sandy Brondello to join Sport Australia Hall of Fame

TORONTO – Toronto Tempo head coach Sandy Brondello will be inducted into the Sport Australia Hall of Fame.

The WNBA team that just completed its first season in the league announced Tuesday that Brondello is one of seven members of a class that will be inducted in November in Melbourne. 

She will enter as an athlete. Brondello, a four-time Olympian, played 302 games for Australia and helped the country earn its first Olympic medal in women’s basketball in 1996 with bronze.

Brondello and her Australian teammates went on to take silver in Sydney, Australia, in 2000, and silver again four years later in Athens, Greece.

She also helped Australia win a pair of bronze medals in her four world championships.

Brondello played 159 WNBA games with the Detroit Shock, Miami Sol and Seattle Storm. She was a league all-star in 1999.

“This is the biggest honour of my career. I’ve been fortunate to experience some incredible moments in basketball, but to be recognized by the Australian sporting community, alongside athletes I admire, is something I never imagined,” Brondello said in a statement from the Tempo. 

“I’m so proud to be Australian, and so grateful to my family and everyone who has been a part of this journey with me.”

 The 58-year-old from Mackay, Australia, was head coach of the WNBA’s New York Liberty for four seasons before coaching Toronto to an 11-33 record in its expansion year.

After retiring from playing in 2004, Brondello coached Australia’s women to silver at the 2018 FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup, bronze at the 2022 World Cup and Olympic bronze in Paris in 2024.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published Oct. 20, 2026.