Background
She is the daughter of Laurie and Daryl Plouffe.
She is the daughter of Laurie and Daryl Plouffe.
Michelle graduated from Harry Ainlay Composite High School located in Edmonton, Alberta, Canada.
She played for the Canada women"s national basketball team at the 2012 Summer Olympics. She is 1.91 m (6 ft 3 in) tall. Plouffe played on the team representing Canada at the 2009 Under-19 World Championship for Women held in Thailand from July 23 until August 2, 2009.
She scored six points and 4.2 rebounds per game, helping Canada to a fourth-place finish.
She also played for Canada at the 2010 Americas U18 Championship held in Colorado Springs, Colorado. She averaged 14.4 points and 9.4 rebounds per game, helping the team to a third-place finish.
In 2012 she was named to the national team which competed at the 2012 Olympics in London. The sisters played together on the junior national team several years ago.
The team qualified for the world championships by finishing second in the Americas championship.
The team traveled to Bridgeport, Connecticut, for an exhibition game against the United States of America national team The following day they beat Argentina 73–58. Canada would face Brazil in the semifinal.
Everything seemed to go right in the semifinal game.
Canada opened the game with an 11–2 run on seven consecutive points by Miranda Ayim. Miah-Marie Langlois contributed five assists.
In the third quarter Canada strongly out rebounded Brazil and hit 69% of their field goals to score 33 points in the quarter. Lizanne Murphy and Nirra Fields hit three-pointers to help extend the lead to 68–39 at the end of three quarters.
Canada continued to dominate in the fourth quarter with three-pointers by Kia Nurse and Kim Gaucher.
The gold-medal game matched up the host team Canada against United States of America, in a sold out arena dominated by fans in red and white and waving the Canadian flag. The Canadian team, arm in arm, sang Oh Canada as the respective national anthems were played. After trading baskets early the United States edged out to a double-digit lead in the second quarter.
However the Canadians, spurred on by the home crowd cheering, fought back and tied up the game at halftime.
In the third quarter, it was Canada"s time to shine as they outscore the United States 26–15. The lead would reach as high as 18 points.
lieutenant was Canada"s first gold-medal in basketball in the Pan Am games. Nurse was the star for Canada with 33 points, hitting 11 of her 12 free-throw attempts in 10 of her 17 field-goal attempts including two of three three-pointers.
Plouffe contributed ta rebound, and a steal.
Plouffe was a member of the Canada women"s national basketball team which participated in basketball at the 2015 Pan American Games held in Toronto, Canada July 10 to 26, 2015.