FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup
THE FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is the most significant basketball tournament for females at the global level. Every four years, the national teams of the best countries in basketball, participate in the biggest basketball sports event.
FIBA stands for the International Basketball Federation which was founded in 1953. The upcoming FIBA tournament is only one year away since it is planned for 2018. The name FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is a newly acquired name for this kind of tournament. Until 2014, it was known as the FIBA World Championship for Women. The cycle of the tournament matches the FIFA World Cup as it also takes place every four years and overlaps with this newly renamed basketball tournament.
The Women’s Basketball World Cup is the biggest sports tournament in basketball, and in order to qualify, the countries take part in pre-qualification tournaments which are arranged by continent. So we have the FIBA Americas Championship for Women, FIBA Oceania Championship for Women, FIBA Africa Championship for Women, EuroBasket Championship for Women, and the FIBA Asia Championship for Women.
The History of FIBA
Even if it was established in 1953, it took another 14 years for the tournament to become fixed and held every four years, but avoiding to overlap with the men’s basketball world cup and Olympic years. The counterpart women and men basketball tournaments were usually not taking place in the same year which resulted in the change of rules which finally identified the cycle years for women. The number of teams which can qualify for the basketball tournament was and is 16 teams. The counterpart Basketball Championship for Men keeps expanding encompassing now 24 national teams, whereby it will include 36 countries in the following Basketball World Cup in 1919.
Concerning the Women’s Basketball World Cup, only four countries managed to take home the title in all these years. The most dominant FIBA national team comes from the USA, who walked away as a proud winner for nine times. The former Soviet Union was also a dominant force on the basketball field, securing six gold medals, whereof five were consecutive. Two other countries have managed to steal the title once, i.e. Brazil in 1996 and Australia in 2006.
FIBA Americas Championship for Women
In order to qualify for the world cup in basketball, all nations undergo qualifications within their own qualification zone (mostly at the continent level); whereby the USA is a part of the FIBA Americas Championship for Women which has been the ticket to the USA to enter the FIBA Basketball World Cup ( or the FIBA Championship for Women). This tournament is held every two years whereby North America, Central America, and South America send their best teams to compete for the champion title of Americas. The tournament plays a dual role; it represents the qualifications for the Basketball World Cup and qualifications for the Olympics.
For example, during the last FIBA Americas Championship for Women 2013, the USA was automatically granted to go to the FIBA World Championship for Women 2014 because the team had already won the Olympics which, at the same time, was their entrance ticket to the World Championship.
We already said that the USA walked away with nine gold medals, but if we count he two bronze medals and one time silver, then, the total of medals amounts to 12. The USA remains statistically the best year in and year out and it seems that no other country can parallel the US women team.
The FIBA tournament represents the biggest achievement in the basketball community, and all countries are more than honored to participate and compete for the gold medal which is a true symbol of recognition and acknowledgment for every nation.