The women's Olympic basketball competition was thrown wide open on Tuesday when Russia confirmed their superstar forward Elena Baranova will play.

The 32-year-old Baranova, the country's leading player at the European Championships one year ago, had been absent from the summer programme and the coaching staff refused to comment on her availability for the Games. 

But the 1.92m forward has been included in the team and her presence makes the Russians contenders for the gold medal, along with defending champions Team USA and Australia.

Baranova has an impressive WNBA pedigree with the New York Liberty and has been one of the world's leading players in recent years. 

In Greece last year at the women's European Championships, she averaged 10.8 points and 10 rebounds a game as Russia captured the gold medal. She was at her best when the competition reached it's most important stages.

Against Spain in the semi-final, she had 14 points and 11 rebounds and then in the final against the Czech Republic she led her country with 14 points and 11 boards.

Basketball Federation of Russia president Sergei Chernov said: "We've set the task for the women's team to be among three top teams at the Olympic Games."

Head coach Vadim Kapranov hopes to go one better. He told the squad as they prepared to fly to Athens: "We want to qualify for the final game."

Squad: Olga Arteshina, Oxana Rakhmatulina, Natalia Vopopyanova, Diana Gustylina, Elena Baranova (capt), Tatyana Schegoleva, Ilona Korstin, Maria Stepanova, Maria Kalmykova, Elena Karpova, Irina Osipova, Anna Arkhipova