FIBA: How Staff 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 Staff USA, the Canadian nationwide crew and the opposite nationwide groups contending for a spot on the medal stand:

Staff USA’s journey to a different gold

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Winners of seven-straight gold medals with an eighth anticipated, Staff USA’s drama typically happens off the court docket, somewhat than on the court docket. “Who might be on the crew?,” 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 choose 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 talent when choosing Olympic rosters, resisted falling prey to reputation, and all of the intersecting biases that gasoline 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 Girls’s Olympic Qualifying Event in Antwerp, Belgium, the place the Individuals, already having punched their ticket to Paris as a consequence of their standing because the defending World Cup champions, confronted a troublesome 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, Staff USA took the court docket collectively for the primary time solely to be proven up by Staff WNBA within the 2024 WNBA All-Star Recreation. Contemplating the Olympians additionally fell to the All-Stars in 2021, the loss mustn’t trigger alarm; somewhat, it underscores that the Individuals should rapidly set up cohesion and consistently preserve focus so as to meet sky-high expectations in Paris.

Staff USA 3×3 seeks second-straight gold

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As Paris might 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, which means the composition of the ultimate roster conjures up a lot much less inspection. Nonetheless, the correct to signify the purple, white and blue is sort of the achievement for the quartet that can head to Paris. Sadly, an ACL damage will forestall 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. Staff USA defeated their U23 counterparts, 19-16, at WNBA All-Star Friday Night time.

Canada’s medal quest

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The Canadians sport their most gifted crew 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, nevertheless, was a little bit of an journey for the Canadians. After dropping to Japan on the FIBA Girls’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 might be prepared

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The Canadians weren’t the one nationwide crew that skilled a further dose of drama when making an attempt to punch their ticket to Paris. The Serbian nationwide crew, led by former Texas standout Yvonne Anderson, battled with the host Brazilians on the FIBA Girls’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 website for the German nationwide crew, which earned its first Olympic berth in program historical past. Via qualification, China, Puerto Rico, Australia, Japan, Spain, Belgium and Nigeria additionally earned their passports to Paris, whereas the French nationwide crew, together with rising star Janelle Salaün, robotically certified for the 12-team Olympic competitors. The D’Tigress of Nigeria might be making their third total, and second-straight, Olympic look, with Tomi Taiwo and Ify Okoro prepared to steer their nation to its greatest Olympic end.