The IX Basketball<\/a>: A basketball newsroom brought to you by The IX Sports<\/a>. 24\/7\/365 women\u2019s basketball coverage, written, edited and photographed by our young, diverse staff and dedicated to breaking news, analysis, historical deep dives and projections about the game we love.<\/p>\n
Growing up in Ontario, Canada, Klein was willing to try every athletic activity her mom suggested except for dance. She played four sports in high school, including badminton. At 6\u20191, she paired with a 6\u20197 boy in badminton to form, in her words, \u201cthe biggest team you could possibly imagine.\u201d<\/p>\n
But basketball was always her favorite, and she caught the eye of Bryant head coach Mary Burke because she blended physicality with a willingness to run the court as a forward.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re very up-tempo, and \u2026 Alex would get out [and] run,\u201d Burke told The IX Basketball about the system she ran until she retired in 2023<\/a>. \u201cJust her ability, her speed, was definitely something that I knew would be successful in our program.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrom a rebounding perspective and getting in a spot to do all those things, she was kind of relentless,\u201d Stu Julius, Klein\u2019s basketball trainer dating back to high school, told The IX Basketball. \u201c\u2026 She\u2019s one of those players that a lot of teams hate [playing against], but a lot of teams want to have on their team.\u201d<\/p>\n Klein chose Bryant in part because it was a smaller school with a good business program. It also helped that fellow Canadian Naana Ankoma-Mensa<\/a> would be a senior when she arrived and would help her settle in.<\/p>\n Klein didn\u2019t play a ton in her first two seasons, averaging just 5.7 minutes per game<\/a>. But she started 24 of 31 games as a junior and averaged 8.8 points and 5.1 rebounds in 20.1 minutes per game.<\/p>\n In particular, Burke remembers a game at Fairleigh Dickinson shortly after Klein entered the starting lineup. Klein had 11 points on 5-for-10 shooting, eight rebounds, three blocks and two steals.<\/p>\n \u201cShe was out running the floor,\u201d Burke said. \u201cShe was making all her layups around the basket. She understood, system-wise, what we were doing. And you saw when all the pieces came together, it was like, \u2018Wow \u2026 if she continues to prosper in this direction, this is going to work out really well for her.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n Klein took that next step as a senior, averaging a team-high 15.5 points<\/a> and 7.8 rebounds in 31.9 minutes per game. She scored 20-plus points eight times and was named first-team All-NEC.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m really, really proud of the first-team all-conference award my senior year, sticking to it and just never giving in,\u201d Klein said. \u201c\u2026 I worked really, really hard for that award. And it wasn\u2019t \u2026 just being the talented person, but [being] the hardest-working person on the court and off the court.\u201d<\/p>\n As Klein\u2019s college career neared its end, she wasn\u2019t sure what she wanted to do next. She didn\u2019t even know whether she wanted to work in the United States or return to Canada. So when agents reached out to her about playing overseas, she was open-minded, which led her to Luxembourg\u2019s second division.<\/p>\n Klein loved her teammates and the country of Luxembourg, and she contributed on the court, averaging 9.3 points and 4.3 rebounds<\/a> in 23.6 minutes per game. She had her first double-double in just her second game with Etzella.<\/p>\n But soon she realized something was wrong. She was in pain and couldn\u2019t eat, and she was getting weaker, which made it hard to keep playing. She didn\u2019t know what was causing her symptoms, but her mom convinced her that leaving midseason was the best thing to do. She ended up playing 10 games overseas before returning to Canada.<\/p>\n Eight months later, Klein finally got a diagnosis: ulcerative colitis. It\u2019s an autoimmune condition<\/a> in which sores develop in the large intestine. That can severely disrupt eating and digestion, sometimes leading to malnutrition<\/a>, and can also cause fatigue.<\/p>\n Want even more women\u2019s sports in your inbox?<\/p>\n Subscribe now to The IX Sports<\/a> and receive our daily women\u2019s sports newsletter covering soccer, tennis, basketball, golf, hockey and gymnastics from our incredible team of writers. That includes Basketball Wednesday from founder and editor Howard Megdal.<\/p>\n Readers of The IX Basketball now save 50% on their subscription to The IX.<\/p>\n Basketball wasn\u2019t on Klein\u2019s mind as she sought a diagnosis; she just wanted answers. Once her ulcerative colitis was in remission, she got back in the gym \u2014 not to return to the sport, but to rebuild her strength and take care of her body. She soon started working sales and marketing jobs, and she also picked up a part-time job at a women\u2019s kickboxing studio to connect with others and learn more about fitness and wellness.<\/p>\n Coincidentally, one of the studio\u2019s co-owners also worked as a physiotherapist for Team Canada. She suggested that Klein consider pursuing one of the sports she worked with: bobsled.<\/p>\n \u201cMy reaction was lighting up a little bit,\u201d Klein said, \u201cbecause \u2026 I could compete and be in sport again.\u201d<\/p>\n At the same time, Klein knew she wasn\u2019t mentally ready to pursue bobsled yet, which would involve attending a testing camp for athletes looking to transition into the sport. Instead, she hired a coach to train her in bobsled techniques while she kept working full-time.<\/p>\n In fall 2022, Klein tried out at a camp<\/a> and made it into Canada\u2019s bobsled pipeline for the 2022-23 season.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019m not surprised,\u201d Burke said. \u201cI mean, just because I know her mentality and I know her work ethic. \u2026 I saw, through her four years, when Alex puts her mind to [something] \u2026 there\u2019s going to be a growth.\u201d<\/p>\n Julius also wasn\u2019t surprised. But as someone who considers Klein \u201clike a daughter,\u201d he couldn\u2019t help but worry when he turned on the TV to watch her first race.<\/p>\n \u201cI was scared. Who does that?\u201d he said with a laugh.<\/p>\n Klein made the World Cup circuit \u2014 the top level of international bobsled \u2014 as an alternate for Team Canada in her first season. The following season, Canada qualified one fewer sled for the World Cup circuit<\/a>, so Klein and her pilot, Melissa Lotholz, dropped down to the North American Cup circuit.<\/p>\n They promptly won the North American Cup<\/a> in March 2024.<\/p>\n \u201cIt\u2019s really great to even be able to say you\u2019re the best in North America at a brand-new sport you never even thought about existing,\u201d Klein said. \u201cThat was \u2026 a really special feeling. \u2026 I would never have been able to think about achieving something like that when I got diagnosed back in 2018. If you would have told me that, I\u2019d say you\u2019re absolutely crazy to even suggest that.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cShe makes a big step in the unknown, in a new language and a new sport in a new country,\u201d said Hampel, who became Klein\u2019s personal coach in January 2024 and started training her in person the following summer. \u201c\u2026 This is not normal. Only a few \u2014 I say, only one I know \u2014 did [these] big steps.\u201d<\/p>\n Athletes often transition to bobsled from sports like track and field<\/a> or football<\/a>, which have some transferable skills. But transitioning from basketball to bobsled required retraining Klein in everything. To add power and explosiveness, she needed to lift heavy weights, which she hadn\u2019t done at Bryant. And instead of focusing on her vertical leap and agility, she had to train her body to sprint in a straight line as fast as possible.<\/p>\n As the brakewoman<\/a> in the two-woman bobsled event, Klein was responsible for getting the sled going as fast as possible<\/a> over a distance of roughly 50 meters, depending on the track. That\u2019s nearly the length of two basketball courts arranged end-to-end \u2014 much farther than she would ever run in a game without turning.<\/p>\n \u201cEverything you know about basketball, bye. Out the door,\u201d Klein said of her early bobsled training.<\/p>\n Though Klein\u2019s height was advantageous in basketball, it was a mixed bag in bobsled. It helped because she could cover more ground with one step and, combined with enough strength, push the sled faster.<\/p>\n But it was also challenging because bobsled has weight limits, which are calculated using the total weight of the sled, all equipment, the pilot and the brakewoman. (Unlike wrestling or boxing, bobsled also enforces those limits between runs, so athletes can\u2019t put weight back on before the race.) With these limits in place, Klein was too tall to pair easily with some of Canada\u2019s pilots \u2014 and cutting weight not only jeopardized her explosiveness, but also risked complicating her ulcerative colitis.<\/p>\n The stress of bobsled also made it difficult for Klein to manage her ulcerative colitis. In an April 2024 podcast appearance<\/a>, she said a run in bobsled \u201cfeels like you\u2019re put into a trash can and you\u2019re just thrown down the stairs.\u201d<\/p>\n Her ulcerative colitis flared up while she was training in 2023, but she was able to recover on her own. After that, she remained in remission until after she retired.<\/p>\n \u201cI\u2019d actually tell you it\u2019s not a smart thing to have done,\u201d she told The IX Basketball about pursuing bobsled after her diagnosis. \u201cBobsled is a very high-anxiety, very strenuous sport on your system, specifically your nervous system. So that\u2019s not great for someone with autoimmune stuff.\u201d<\/p>\n After the 2023-24 season, Klein switched countries to represent Romania<\/a>. The change came largely because she could pair with a smaller pilot to try to make the 2026 Olympics and would therefore need to cut much less weight. Klein and her new pilot, Andreea Grecu, were on track to make the Olympics, Hampel said, but Grecu ended up retiring<\/a> in July 2025.<\/p>\n Without Grecu, Klein didn\u2019t have a lot of options. She couldn\u2019t pair with every available pilot, and she couldn\u2019t switch to piloting, either. Klein estimated that it takes an average of four to six years to become a good pilot because it requires so much technical knowledge and familiarity with each course.<\/p>\n \u201cShe gives so much from her heart and from her personality to do it and makes the big jumps,\u201d Hampel said, referencing not only her improvement as an athlete but also her moving to new countries to train. \u201c\u2026 And then it doesn\u2019t work. So \u2026 it\u2019s not fair.\u201d<\/p>\n Order \u2018Rare Gems\u2019 and save 30% If you enjoy Megdal\u2019s coverage of women\u2019s basketball every Wednesday at The IX Sports, you will love \u201cRare Gems: How Four Generations of Women Paved the Way for the WNBA.\u201d Click the link below to order<\/a> and enter MEGDAL30 at checkout to save 30%!<\/p>\n![\"Canadian](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/53564099073_05baa91ede_o.jpg\")
Canadian bobsledders Alex Klein (left) and Melissa Lotholz pose for a photo during the 2024 BMW IBSF World Championships in Winterberg, Germany. (Photo credit: Viesturs Lacis | IBSF)<\/p>\n![\"Alex](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/53562198724_e70cccdec8_o.jpg\")
Canadian bobsledders Alex Klein and Melissa Lotholz race down the track at the start of a run during the 2024 BMW IBSF World Championships in Winterberg, Germany. (Photo credit: Viesturs Lacis | IBSF)<\/p>\n
Howard Megdal, founder and editor of The IX Basketball and The IX Sports, wrote this deeply reported book. \u201cRare Gems\u201d follows four connected generations of women\u2019s basketball pioneers, from Elvera \u201cPeps\u201d Neuman to Cheryl Reeve and from Lindsay Whalen to Sylvia Fowles and Paige Bueckers.<\/p>\n