This Tuesday, March 19, the draw for the group stage of the basketball event of the Paris Games takes place. The French men's and women's teams will know their opponents to hope to reach the quarter-finals.
This Tuesday, March 19, the French women's and men's basketball teams will know their opponents for the group stage of the Paris Olympic Games. The draw for the preliminary phase takes place this Tuesday evening, at the headquarters of the International Basketball Federation in Mies, Switzerland, in the presence of former NBA player Carmelo Anthony, triple Olympic champion with team USA and the 2006 world champion Australian Penny Taylor. 130 days before the start of the competition, the teams of Vincent Collet and Jean-Aimé Toupane are hoping for a favorable draw to reach the quarter-finals in Paris.
The manager of the French team and former captain Boris Diaw announced the color: the objective of these Games at home for basketball is to do as well as four years ago in Tokyo, namely to bring home the medal . To do this, the women's and men's teams will already have to move out of the groups. For both women and men, France is in pot 3. The two teams could therefore find a strong opponent from the preliminary phase, which will take place in Lille, at the Pierre Mauroy stadium. If the men are guaranteed not to find themselves in the USA group, who will automatically be in pool A or B while France will be in pool C, this is not the case for the women's team, which has a one in two chance of finding the reigning Olympic winners since 1996.
Note that the hats are not yet complete for the men, since the qualifying tournaments granting the last four tickets will be played from July 2 to 7.
In their quest for Olympic metal, Vincent Collet's players will have to face stiff competition. They could indeed find Germany, Australia, Serbia or the winner of the Athens TQO in the groups, where Doncic's Slovenia, semi-finalist of the last Olympics, and Giannis Antetokoúnmpo's Greece appear.
The group stage should be less difficult for the French women's team, despite the possibility of finding themselves in the USA group. The girls look like a scarecrow in this hat three, and seem capable of seriously competing with China, whom they beat with authority less than a month ago, certainly in a friendly match, and the other teams in hat 1 and 2.
Men
Hat 1: USA, Germany, Valencia TQO winner.
Hat 2: Serbia, Australia, Riga TQO winner.
Hat 3: Canada, France, San Juan TQO winner.
Hat 4: Japan, South Sudan, Athens TQO winner.
Women
Hat 1: United States, China, Australia.
Hat 2: Spain, Canada, Belgium.
Hat 3: France, Japan, Serbia.
Hat 4: Puerto Rico, Nigeria, Germany.
TQO from July 2 to 7, 2024 (men)
Valencia (ESP): Spain, Angola, Lebanon; Bahamas, Finland, Poland. Athens (GRE): Greece, Dominican Republic, Egypt; Slovenia, Croatia, New Zealand.Riga (LET): Latvia, Georgia, Philippines; Brazil, Montenegro, Cameroon.San Juan (PRI): Puerto Rico, Italy, Bahrain; Lithuania, Mexico, Ivory Coast.
The draw for the group stage will take place on Tuesday, March 19 at 7 p.m., in Mies, Switzerland, at the FIBA headquarters and can be followed live from 7 p.m. on the Fiba YouTube channel.
