Five teams from Americas region secured their spot for Tokyo 2020 Olympic Basketball Tournaments

MIAMI (United States) - FIBA’s Olympic Draw for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games is now complete, with both the women’s and men’s sides being drawn digitally on February 2 and were streamed across FIBA’s digital platforms. Five teams from the Americas region secured their spot for the summer games.

On the women’s side, Canada, Puerto Rico and Team USA will be representing the Americas, all had already qualified for the tournament prior to the draw. Canada will be facing Korea, Serbia and Spain in Group A, Team USA will be up against Nigeria, Japan and France in group B, and Puerto Rico is grouped with Australia, China and Belgium in group C.

Key players representing the Americas on the women’s side are Kia Nurse (CAN), Bridget Carleton (CAN), A’ja Wilson (USA), Arike Ogunbowale (USA), Jennifer O’Neill (PR) and Jazmon Gwathmey (PR).

For the men’s side, only eight teams out of a potential 12 have qualified, leaving each group with a vacancy to be determined in qualifying tournaments taking place from June 29th to July 4th, 2021.

Currently, the Americas region is represented by the USA in group A, and Argentina in group C. USA’s star-studded Olympic roster includes players like Lebron James, Kevin Durant, Steph Curry, Jimmy Butler, Anthony Davis and Devin Booker, among the 44 names currently on the men’s national team roster.

Luís Scola, Facundo Campazzo and Nicolás Laprovittola have been top performers for the Argentina men’s national team, securing them a spot in the Olympics after finishing 8th in 2016, and having podium finishes in both 2004 and 2008.

As for the final four spots, seven teams from the Americas will be competing in the four qualifying tournaments. Dominican Republic and Puerto Rico will be playing in Belgrade, Serbia; Venezuela will be playing in Kaunas, Lithuania; Mexico and Brazil will be playing in Split, Croatia and Canada and Uruguay will be rounding out the teams in Victoria, Canada.

Names to watch for in the men’s side of the tournament include Canada national team captain and Sacramento Kings guard Cory Joseph, Brazilian national team members Guilherme Hubner of Franca and Guilherme Santos of Minas currently competing in the Basketball Champions League of Americas.

Others include Juan-Toscano Anderson of the Golden State Warriors representing Mexico, Eloy Vargas of Domincan Republic, and Mathias Calfani of Uruguay, who is also a member of San Lorenzo de Almagro of BCL Americas.

The Tokyo 2021 Olympic games will be taking place from July 23 to August 8 2021.

FIBA