There are obviously many countries in the world, as well as those that take part in the Olympics, so the question is, how do you whittle down the field? How are the participating countries chosen for the Olympics Basketball tournament? Well, it's not so much that they are chosen, but rather they have to qualify and once countries do, how is the winner determined?
QUALIFYING FOR OLYMPICS BASKETBALL
The International Basketball Federation also known as FIBA or Fédération Internationale de Basketball (French), is the governing body for all international basketball competition. Within the FIBA structure are FIBA Zones in which countries all over the world are designated into. There are five FIBA Zones:
- FIBA Africa
- FIBA Americas
- FIBA Asia
- FIBA Europe
- FIBA Oceania
Each FIBA Zone is allotted a certain number of berths into the Olympics Basketball tournament, one automatic (and depending on the FIBA Zone, the only) way is to win the the Zone's championship tournament. For example, in the FIBA Americas Zone it's the FIBA Americas Championship tournament that took place last summer in Las Vegas, which Team USA won.
Here is the FIBA Zone breakdown with number of automatic Olympics Basketball berths in parentheses: FIBA Africa (1), FIBA Americas (2), FIBA Asia (1), FIBA Europe (2), FIBA Oceania (1).
In addition to the above seven FIBA Zone berths, the following also receive berths:
- FIBA World Championships winner
- Host Olympics Country (in 2008, it will be China)
- Three Wildcards
The three wildcards will qualify via a tournament held a few weeks before the Olympics. The best teams in each FIBA Zone that did not win an automatic berth will compete.
So, in all, we have 12 countries in the Olympics Basketball tournament. This is the same amount of countries that compete in the Olympics Basketball - Women tournament. Here is a breakdown of the WOMEN qualifiers:
- FIBA Africa
- FIBA Americas
- FIBA Asia
- FIBA Europe
- FIBA Oceania
- FIBA World Championship winner
- Host Olympics Country
- Five Wildcards
The five wildcards are determined the same way as the men, with a qualifying tournament taking place a few weeks before the Olympics.
OLYMPICS BASKETBALL SEEDING
The twelve teams that qualify for the Olympics are broken up into two groups of six teams. Within this group, each of the respective teams will play five games, one against each team in the group. This is the Preliminary Round.
The teams with the top four records in each group move on to the Quarterfinals Round. Teams are then seeded 1 to 8 according to their Preliminary Round record with Seed 1 playing Seed 8, Seed 2 playing Seed 7, Seed 3 playing Seed 6, and Seed 4 playing Seed 5.
GOLD, SILVER, BRONZE
Winners of the Quarterfinals games move on to the Semifinals Round. The winners of the Semifinals Round games meet in the Finals for the Olympics Basketball gold medal. The loser of the Finals receives the Silver. The two losing team in the Semifinals Round compete for the Bronze.