SAN JUAN (Puerto Rico) – FIBA Americas President Carol Callan has sat and enjoyed many quality-packed minutes of women’s basketball from the seats at the Roberto Clemente Coliseum.

The recently elected Callan had words of praise for the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019, an event that she has closely followed for some time due to her role as an architect of USA Basketball’s women’s basketball program.

“I’ve enjoyed this,” said Callan about the 2019 edition of the FIBA Women’s AmeriCup. “Most of the games have been very competitive. Regardless of the scoreboard, what I see is a good game played by everyone. They're working very hard. I’m very impressed.”

As was discussed in the most recent FIBA Congress in China, women’s basketball will now be one of the pillars of the world governing body for basketball. For Callan this is a great opportunity, taking into account that there is a strong market in a sector that still has a lot of development potential.

“I think that this is an enormous market that hasn’t been explored in many ways, from the sponsorship standpoint. But it's also the right time when people are starting to focus more on women's sports. Not only are they more talented and games are good, but they're also more vocal in their desire of taking it to the next level. I think that there are a lot of companies around the world with many more women in leadership positions that could direct their companies to spend more money to support women's basketball.”

The FIBA Women’s AmeriCup 2019 is also part of the new competition system for women's basketball, where national teams will have more opportunities to organize and prepare. Of this edition, eight teams qualified to the FIBA Women’s Olympic Pre-Qualifying Tournaments of the Americas 2019, which will take place in Argentina and Canada, as was revealed this afternoon.

The teams that will compete in the two Pre-Qualifying Tournaments are Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, Cuba, Dominican Republic, Puerto Rico, and the United States.

22 National Teams will take part in the upcoming FIBA Women's Pre-Qualifying Tournaments to qualify for one of the four global FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020, taking place on February 2020.

For both the Americas and Asia-Oceania regions, eight teams will compete for four spots, per region, at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020 in February next year. For Africa, six teams will fight it out for two qualifying spots.
Meanwhile, in Europe, the top six teams from the FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2019 will qualify directly for the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020.

Then these 16 top teams will go through to the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments 2020, taking place on February 2020, which will be split into four groups in a draw held later in the year. The top three teams from each tournament will qualify for the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games Women's Basketball Tournament. Both the USA, current gold medalists, and Japan, who are the hosts, will play in the qualification tournaments and regardless of their results advance through to Tokyo 2020.

“For years this has been like a dream for many of us who have been working with women's basketball,” said Callan about the new system. “It was (a decision) taken by a commission of women who spent a lot of time discussing it, and there are several reasons behind it. When you have good reasons, it can be successful.”

The President appointed for the 2019-2023 term used this opportunity to number the reasons and benefits that FIBA and the national federations expect to obtain from the new system, considering the success of the qualifying windows system for the FIBA Men’s Basketball World Cup.

1. Bringing more teams and elevating the quality as the tournaments go forward
“When you get to bigger events, like the World Cup or the Olympic Games, you’ll have a progressive system that brings more people starting in their first opportunity of being involved,” said Callan.

2. Competitions will be divided into four-team tournaments
“That way you’ll have the opportunity to host and showcase your national team if you decide to host one of these events. It’s a hybrid system, a better financial investment.”

3. It is competition with a purpose
“You’ll be playing games that matter, not friendlies. There’s a real purpose behind it, and I believe that, finally, a second product is that more young women can see, that more people can watch, and we hope that then the participation and audience numbers will grow. I believe we’ll be successful!” Callan explained.

The first woman to preside the FIBA Americas Zone in the organization's history reasserted her commitment to women’s basketball. With more than two decades of experience in the area, Callan said that she wants to focus her efforts toward letting each player know that she is considered and that they are all important for any expectations to expand the sport.

“It’s tough to have just one goal; I have a lot,” said Callan. “I want them to know how much we appreciate what they do and how important their games are as well. So, elevating the profile of everything we do with these events is really important. (We want to) be able to support them. Letting them know that FIBA cares, that’s crucial. And growing the game. If we can do that by focusing more and having good competitions in a good way, I think that’s when we’ll reach what I long for.”

FIBA