12 Laetitia Guapo (FRA)
16/11/2020
3x3
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3x3's best women's player Guapo's amazing athleticism revealed

LONDON (UK) - She could have been an Olympic 100m sprinter or marathon runner. Or even a champion cyclist.

Fortunately, Laetitia Guapo is a 3x3 star and currently the world's number one women's player. A Guapo-led France dominated 2019 with five FIBA 3x3 Women's Series titles and medals at the Europe Cup (gold) and World Cup (bronze).

But the 25-year-old's incredible athleticism has been revealed in the Olympic Channel's Anatomy Of, a series where the world's best athletes are tested in a laboratory at Kingston University in London in a bid to scientifically explain their physical makeup.

The findings for the Frenchwoman were amazing. She had a total body fat percentage of 13.7, which was lower than the average for athletes from other sports, including basketball players (19%).

Her anaerobic power, tested through a workout on a stationary bike, was only fractionally less than some female 100m Olympic sprinters and the data revealed that Guapo is able to maintain power without fatiguing. They are ideal characteristics for the non-stop 3x3 game played in a whirlwind of just 10 minutes.

 

Perhaps Guapo's most jaw-dropping characteristic is endurance, which results found she could run at a sub two-hour marathon pace - a mark reserved for Olympic long-distance runners. Her endurance also rivalled elite cyclists.

"She is a person I just want on my team," said host and former American Olympian Lolo Jones of Guapo. "She does not get tired. If she does, she keeps fighting. She's an incredible athlete."

 

Guapo hopes to follow Jones' footsteps and become an Olympian at the rescheduled Tokyo Games next year. "(The Olympics) is a dream for a lot of athletes. To make the Olympics with 3x3 is my dream," she said.

3x3 fans already knew Laetitia Guapo was an athletic marvel.

Now the whole world knows too.