MIES (SWITZERLAND) - Serbian star Jelena Brooks and Hungarian standout Lenke Kiss will be on hand to help with the Draw for the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2024.
Brooks ended her distinguished career with Serbia after the Tokyo Olympics, having previously helped her nation claim a historic bronze medal at Rio 2016 on their maiden appearance. She also won two FIBA Women's EuroBasket titles in a national team vest, as well as a bronze medal on home soil in 2019.
Meanwhile Kiss took Hungary to the Semi-Finals of the 1980 Olympic Games in Moscow. A phenomenal scoring force, she amassed 20 points per game and also excelled at the FIBA Women's EuroBasket for her country. She scored a remarkable 700 points from 44 games in the competition, memorably winning bronze in 1983.
The Draw will take place on Thursday October 5 at 19:30 CET in Sopron (Hungary). There are 10 Olympic tickets available for Paris 2024 via the Qualifying Tournaments, with France assured of a spot as Olympic hosts and USA handed a place as FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2022 winners. However, while both have guaranteed spots in Paris, they will still take part in the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments.
The participating teams are: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, France, Germany, Hungary, Japan, New Zealand, Nigeria, Senegal, Serbia, Spain and USA.
The draw will also include Canada, Puerto Rico, Colombia or Venezuela, but these nations must first play at the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournament in November 2023, with the two highest-placed teams advancing (AM1 and AM2).
Draw Principles
-The sixteen teams have been divided into four pots, based on the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike. Each pot will feed one team per group.
-The four hosts will be immediately allocated to the tournament taking place in their country.
-USA and France can not be drawn in the same Tournament.
-In order to preserve geographical balance and have a maximum of two teams from the same region in each tournament, the following principles will apply:
There must be a minimum of one and a maximum of two European teams in each Tournament. China and Japan cannot be drawn in the same Tournament. Australia and New Zealand cannot be drawn in the same Tournament. The two African teams must be drawn in the same Tournament to ensure that all Regions are represented at the Olympic Games. There must be a team from Americas in each Tournament. [/unordered]
Viewers can tune into a live stream of the draw on the FIBA YouTube channel.
The FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be held from February 8 to 11 next year.
They will take place in the cities of Antwerp, Belgium; Belem, Brazil; Sopron, Hungary; and a city to be confirmed in China.
FIBA