Embracing the journey: how Chantel Horvat navigates the twists and turns of pro basketball

Across a career that has taken her across the globe, Horvat has learned how to embrace the unexpected.

Photo credit: Supplied/Sydney Comets

Chantel Horvat’s career has taken her from Geelong to Canberra to California to a WNBL championship and representing the Opals, with stops in Poland, Spain and Turkey along the way.

Through it all, she’s learned to expect the unexpected.

Horvat recently made the move to the Sydney Comets in NBL1 East this season and made an immediate impact with a 37-point, 13-rebound debut against Lauren Nicholson’s Sutherland Sharks. Showcasing a polished mid-range game and an athleticism that allowed her to seemingly get to the rim at will, she stamped herself as one of the elite players in the conference.

But with just one game under her belt for the team, the unexpected happened: a finger injury so horrific her bone “popped out of the skin”.