With less than 12 months until the 2024 Paris Olympics, countries are looking to guarantee their place in this prestigious competition. For many, the 2024 tournament will be the most competitive international basketball tournament of all time. Only 12 spots are available in the competition making it a major challenge for many countries to even qualify.
Here is a summary of how all 12 teams will qualify and be in Paris for the Summer Olympics.
Host nation: France
As the host nation, France will qualify directly for the tournament and are guaranteed a spot. France has former NBA Defensive Player of the Year in Jazz center Rudy Gobert as well as other NBA players including Nicolas Batum (Clippers), Evan Fournier (Knicks), Timothe Luwawu-Cabarrot (Nets) and Frank Ntilikina (Knicks). France will be confident going into the tournament and hopeful of winning against the other big basketball nations.
Qualification via Basketball World Cup
The current FIBA Basketball World Cup has seven places to the best teams from respective continents based on the final classification as follows:
FIBA Africa – 1 team
FIBA Americas – 2 teams
FIBA Asia – 1 team
FIBA Europe – 2 teams
FIBA Oceania – 1 team
The top 2 finishing teams at the World Cup from Europe and the Americas qualify, while only the top finishing team from Africa, Asia, and Oceania qualify. The final four spots are decided by the Olympic Qualifying Tournaments to be held a month before the Olympics begin. We at TalkBasket will have all FIBA news and national team news here.
With the World Cup taking place in the next few weeks, all the major national teams will be in the Philippines, Japan and Indonesia looking to secure their place. The favourites of the tournament are USA, Spain, Slovenia, France and Serbia, all of which have a strong chance to win. Fans in Europe for the Olympics can use the ticketing website Seat Compare for all sporting tickets including basketball and football. As with all major sporting competitions, there will be upsets and more countries are becoming more competitive than ever.
Wild Card Tournament Qualification
The remaining four places are given to the qualifiers from the two-round FIBA World Olympic Qualifying tournaments. Two tournaments will be held, with the winning team of each tournament qualifying for the 2024 FIBA Men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments. Istanbul, Turkey will host the first tournament and Gliwice, Poland and Tallinn, Estonia the second.
The wild-card tournaments are a good way for teams that missed out in the world cup to qualify for the biggest competition in International Basketball, the Olympics. Outside teams such as Turkey, Germany and Argentina have a good opportunity to use this tournament to qualify.
Teams To Follow
Here are some of the teams to follow at the World Cup, they could cause some upsets:
- Nigeria: Nigeria has some great talent both in Europe and the NBA and is the best African team in FIBA.
- Argentina: With the skills of Leandro Bolmaro and Facundo Campazzo, Argentina could surprise a few fans and qualify via the World Cup.
- Germany: Standout players of Dennis Schroder, Daniel Theis, Maxi Kleber, and Franz Wagner could make basketball headlines and qualify for Paris 2024 and place above Slovenia and Spain.
Who are your favorites to not only qualify for the Olympics in Paris 2024 but also to win the gold medal next year? Will the USA continue their dominance of the sport or will a major European basketball country win?