FIBA: How Crew USA, different contenders charted paths to Paris Olympics

The 2024 Olympic Video games in Paris formally open on July 26. The ladies’s 5×5 basketball competitors begins July 28, with the ladies’s 3×3 competitors tipping off on July 30.

Earlier than the Video games start, right here’s a glance again at Swish Enchantment’s protection of the preparations for Paris by Crew USA, the Canadian nationwide workforce and the opposite nationwide groups contending for a spot on the medal stand:

Crew USA’s journey to a different gold

Picture by Alex Slitz/Getty Photographs

Winners of seven-straight gold medals with an eighth anticipated, Crew USA’s drama typically happens off the courtroom, reasonably than on the courtroom. “Who will probably be on the workforce?,” not, “Will we win?,” is the query that causes consternation.

This 12 months, the scrutiny round of the choice course of was intensified by the Caitlin Clark Impact, with followers and analysts marshaling numerous arguments to insist that the No. 1 decide within the 2024 WNBA Draft should be on the squad. That she wasn’t chosen signifies that USA Basketball, typically accused of prioritizing issues past basketball ability when deciding on Olympic rosters, resisted falling prey to recognition, and all of the intersecting biases that gas it, when naming the ultimate roster.

Moreover, the choice course of started lengthy earlier than the hotly-debated announcement in early June. USA Basketball started prepping for Paris final fall, with exhibition video games in opposition to Duke and Tennessee.

Subsequent was a February coaching camp, adopted by the FIBA Ladies’s Olympic Qualifying Event in Antwerp, Belgium, the place the Individuals, already having punched their ticket to Paris because of their standing because the defending World Cup champions, confronted a tricky take a look at from the Belgium earlier than cruising to wins over Nigeria and Senegal.

USA Basketball hosted one other coaching camp in April earlier than the 12 who will head to Paris had been introduced in June.

On Saturday, Crew USA took the courtroom collectively for the primary time solely to be proven up by Crew WNBA within the 2024 WNBA All-Star Recreation. Contemplating the Olympians additionally fell to the All-Stars in 2021, the loss shouldn’t trigger alarm; reasonably, it underscores that the Individuals should rapidly set up cohesion and always preserve focus in an effort to meet sky-high expectations in Paris.

Crew USA 3×3 seeks second-straight gold

Picture by Dylan Goodman/NBAE by way of Getty Photographs

As Paris will probably be simply the second Olympic Video games to characteristic 3×3 basketball, the game has but to determine the cultural buy of 5×5 basketball, that means the composition of the ultimate roster evokes a lot much less inspection. Nonetheless, the correct to symbolize the purple, white and blue is kind of the achievement for the quartet that can head to Paris. Sadly, an ACL harm will stop Cameron Brink from having fun with that chance; as a substitute, her Los Angeles Sparks teammate Dearica Hamby will be part of Rhyne Howard, Cierra Burdick and Hailey Van Lith within the quest for gold.

The foursome obtained a primetime take a look at final Friday—and handed. Crew USA defeated their U23 counterparts, 19-16, at WNBA All-Star Friday Night time.

Canada’s medal quest

Picture by Kevin Gentle/Getty Photographs

The Canadians sport their most gifted workforce in program historical past, with a quartet of WNBA gamers seeking to lead Canada to the medal that eluded them on the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo.

Qualification, nonetheless, was a little bit of an journey for the Canadians. After shedding to Japan on the FIBA Ladies’s Olympic Qualifying Event in Sopron, Hungary, Canada’s Olympic hopes had been saved by Spain’s victory over Hungary, which required a greater than 20-point comeback. Canada has to hope such fortune from the basketball gods follows them to Paris.

The remainder of the world will probably be prepared

Picture by Bruno Dietrich/ Metropolis-Press GmbH Bildagentur by way of Getty Photographs

The Canadians weren’t the one nationwide workforce that skilled a further dose of drama when making an attempt to punch their ticket to Paris. The Serbian nationwide workforce, led by former Texas standout Yvonne Anderson, battled with the host Brazilians on the FIBA Ladies’s Olympic Qualifying Event in Belém to earn a second-straight journey the Olympic Video games.

The qualifying match in Belém additionally was a celebratory web site for the German nationwide workforce, which earned its first Olympic berth in program historical past. By qualification, China, Puerto Rico, Australia, Japan, Spain, Belgium and Nigeria additionally earned their passports to Paris, whereas the French nationwide workforce, together with rising star Janelle Salaün, mechanically certified for the 12-team Olympic competitors. The D’Tigress of Nigeria will probably be making their third general, and second-straight, Olympic look, with Tomi Taiwo and Ify Okoro prepared to guide their nation to its finest Olympic end.