Olympic qualification system for 3x3 basketball at Tokyo 2020 confirmed

MIES (Switzerland) – FIBA and the International Olympic Committee (IOC) have confirmed the qualification path for the 8 men’s teams and the 8 women’s teams competing on 3x3’s debut at the Olympic Games on July 25-29, 2020.

There will be 3 ways to qualify for the 3x3 event of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics:

Via the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking (4 spots per gender) Via an Olympic Qualifying Tournament (3 spots per gender) Via a Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament (1 spot per gender) [/unordered]

After consultation with the IOC, it was agreed to grant an automatic ticket to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics to the Japanese national team (men or women) who ranks highest in the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking. The team of the other gender will get an automatic ticket to the Olympic Qualifying Tournament and, if not yet qualified, to the Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

On November 1, 2019, FIBA will announce the first 8 teams (4 per gender) qualified for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics during a livestreamed ceremony, which will take place in Utsunomiya on the eve of the FIBA 3x3 World Tour Final.

These teams will be the 4 highest-placed countries per gender in the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking, except if Japan does not rank in the Top 4 in any gender. In this case their highest-ranked team will get a spot instead of the 4th best team in that category. Note that a maximum of 2 teams per gender can come from the same continent.

The first Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be staged in March 2020 and will feature 40 teams (20 per gender), qualified via the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking (taking into account universality criteria) or the FIBA 3x3 World Cup 2019 (the medalists). A total of 6 tickets (3 per gender) to the Olympics will be granted at the end of the event.

The Universality Olympic Qualifying Tournament will offer a chance to win the last 2 tickets (1 per gender) to the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Twelve teams (6 per gender) will qualify, based on the FIBA 3x3 Federation Ranking and subject to not having been represented in Basketball (irrespectively men or women) in the past 2 editions of the Olympic Games. This reflects one of 3x3’s missions to bring basketball to countries, which are not traditional basketball powerhouses.

The exact dates and locations of these 2 Olympic Qualifying Tournaments will be announced shortly.

For more information about 3x3 at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, go to https://fiba3x3.com/olympics

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Exciting, urban and innovative, 3x3 is inspired by several forms of streetball played worldwide and is considered the world’s number one urban team sport. Steered by FIBA, games see two teams of three players face off on a basketball half-court.

It was played successfully for the first time in international competition at the 2010 Youth Olympic Games in Singapore and since then has benefited from the launch of a yearly city-based FIBA 3x3 World Tour and national-team FIBA 3x3 World & Continental Cups.

On 9 June 2017, 3x3 was added to the Olympic Program, starting from the Tokyo 2020 Games.

Nike is the Founding Partner, Wilson the Global Ball Partner and Tissot the Official Timekeeper of FIBA 3x3.

FIBA 3x3 events are played on Enlio floors with Wilson balls, Schelde backstops, and the Magic Sky canopy system.

For further information about 3x3, visit fiba3x3.basketball, FIBA 3x3 accounts on Facebook, Instagram, Sina Weibo, Tencent, Twitter, Youku and YouTube or contact 3x3@fiba.com.