After a year's wait due to the COVID-19 pandemic, New London High School graduate India Pagan was named earlier this week to the Puerto Rican Olympic women's basketball team, which leaves Sunday for Tokyo.

If ever there was something worth waiting for ...

"I really have no words," Pagan said Thursday morning from Puerto Rico. "I've been waiting for this moment for about two years now because it was postponed. I'm super blessed and thankful I get to call myself an Olympian."

Pagan, a 6-foot-1 forward who will use her final year of eligibility next season at Stony Brook University — the NCAA gave all college athletes an extra year of eligibility due to the havoc caused by the pandemic — also played in an NCAA tournament this year with the Sea Wolves.

She was then part of the Puerto Rican national team which won the silver medal at the 2021 FIBA Women's AmeriCup in Puerto Rico, falling to the United States in the championship game. Pagan, one of the youngest players on the Puerto Rican squad at 22, averaged 2.4 points and 1.6 rebounds in 12.9 minutes during that tournament.

Puerto Rico head coach Jerry Batista explained in announcing the country's Olympic Team on Wednesday that it was decided to keep the same group of players together which represented the nation during the AmeriCup.

"It is a team that has a lot of talent, a combination of veteran and young players," Batista said in a press release. "They have good chemistry, they know each other well and understand their roles."

Puerto Rico, making its historic first Olympic appearance, will open play on July 27, facing China. The squad will participate in Group C, also joined by Australia and Belgium.

"I had heard lots of rumors that they might cancel them even after postponing them a year," Pagan said of the Olympics. "Even now, yesterday I heard Japan has so many cases they're still worried and not sure. But I will continue to have faith that this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and dream will become reality soon."

Pagan called this year "one for the history books."

"Winning an America East title and making it to the NCAA tournament was another dream of mine that I was blessed to be able to reach as well," Pagan said. "And now Tokyo, the biggest stage of all."

Pagan is a 2017 New London graduate, helping lift the Whalers to the Class LL state championship and Connecticut's No. 1 ranking as a senior. A Class LL all-state selection, she was named The Day's 2017 All-Area Girls' Basketball Player of the Year.

At Stony Brook, Pagan became the 18th player in program history to reach the 1,000-point plateau for her career and she finished the 2020-21 season with the highest career field goal percentage in school history (.512, 460-for-899).

Pagan will be the third Stony Brook athlete, first active, ever to compete in an Olympic Games. She joins 2012 grad Lucy Van Dalen (New Zealand track and field, 2012 Olympics) and 1994 grad Roger Gill (Guyana track and field, 1996 Olympics).

Both Pagan's parents, Carmen and Moises, originally hail from Puerto Rico and traveled to San Juan for the AmeriCup final against the U.S.

"I think as parents we are still a little numb," Moises Pagan said. "We are extremely happy for India. It's a moment that she will share with her children one day.

"We tell her all the time to enjoy the moment and to create memories from that moment. I think it's fair to say that this will be a special moment for her, for us as parents and for our family and friends."

v.fulkerson@theday.com