Qualified Team Focus - Puerto Rico: Can the underdogs take historic first win?

MIES (Switzerland) - The Women's Olympic Basketball Tournament Paris 2024 lineup is now known and with the game schedule also confirmed, we're checking out the 12 nations bidding for glory at Paris 2024.

We're now moving on to Puerto Rico who are currently 11th in the FIBA World Ranking Women, presented by Nike.

How they qualified

Going up against the mighty China and France at the FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournament 2024 in Xi'An, China, it was always going to boil down to the pivotal meeting with New Zealand for the Paris berth. And, that is exactly how it panned out, with Puerto Rico sneaking past the Tall Ferns 69-67 in a nerve shredding contest in between the predictable defeats to France and China. 

Record at the Olympics

Appearances: 2 - 2020 (12th); 2024
Medals: 0

Last appearance 

Puerto Rico proudly made their Olympic debut at Tokyo 2020 and the Islanders didn't manage to write more history with a first win. That was not a surprise in a hugely challenging group, but the valuable experience of facing three class teams in Australia, Belgium and China has served them well for future tournaments.

The Group phase 

On paper at least, Puerto Rico might feel that they have a very slightly more favorable group than when they debuted in Tokyo, although it will still be tough against Serbia, Spain and China. There is no doubt they will feel they can challenge a Serbia team in something of a transition, while Spain are without star center Raquel Carrera, with the quick return game against China providing a chance to show they can close the gap since Xi'An.

Puerto Rico Group Phase games

vs Serbia (July 28)
vs Spain (July 31)
vs China (August 3)

Players to watch

There will be two names at the top of opposing scouting reports and these will be highlighted and underlined. Classy guard Arella Guirantes has already shown her quality in big games having excelled on her major tournament debut at the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup 2022. Meanwhile the same can be said of naturalized forward Mya Hollingshed who is often in double-double territory.

But of course, their two standout ballers can't do it alone and this will be about how the supporting cast can step up and deliver. A productive tournament from the likes of Brianna Jones, Isalys Quinones and Pamela Rosado could make all the difference. 

Qualified Team Focus series

During coming weeks and months, we will continue to check out all teams ready to step out at Paris 2024 as part of our Qualified Team Focus series. You can already take a look at USA, China, Australia, Spain, Canada, Belgium, France Japan and Serbia.

FIBA