Basketball at the Summer Olympics has been asport for men consistently since1936. Prior to its inclusion as a medal sport,basketball was held as an unofficial demonstration event in1904 and1924. Women's basketball made its debut in theSummer Olympics in1976.FIBA organizes both the men's and women'sFIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournaments and the Summer Olympics basketball tournaments, which are sanctioned by theIOC.[1]
The United States is by far the most successful country in Olympic basketball, withUnited States men's teams having won 17 of 20 tournaments in which they participated, including seven consecutive titles from1936 through1968.United States women's teams have won 10 titles out of the 12 tournaments in which they competed, including eight in a row from1996 to2024. Besides the United States,Argentina is the only nation still in existence which has won a gold medal. TheSoviet Union,Yugoslavia and theUnified Team are the countries no longer in existence who have won the tournament. The United States are the defending champions in both men's and women's tournaments.
On 9 June 2017, the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee announced that3x3 basketball would become an official Olympic sport as of the2020 Summer Olympics inTokyo, Japan, for both men and women.[2][3]
Thanks in part to the effort ofPhog Allen[5][6]—aKansas Jayhawks collegiate coach—the first Olympic basketball tournament was organized in the1936 Berlin Olympics on outdoor tennis courts. Dr. Naismith presented the medals to the top three teams. According to the Olympic rules of that time, all of the competitors wereamateurs. The tournament was held indoors for the first time in1948. TheAmerican team proved its dominance, winning the first seven Olympic tournaments through1968, without losing a single game. While the Americans were barred from sending a team that contained players from the professionalNational Basketball Association, they instead sent in college players; teams from some other countries sent in their best players, as some of their players were classified as "amateur" by FIBA, by earning allowances instead of wages.
The U.S. team reclaimed the gold medal in1976, withYugoslavia, which had beaten the Soviet Union in the semifinal, finishing runner-up for the second time. In1980, with the Americans' absence due to theboycott, Yugoslavia became the third team to win the title, after beating the Soviets anew in the semifinals andItaly in the final. The Americans regained the title in1984, by beatingSpain in the final, with the Sovietsboycotting this time. The Soviets won the gold medal for the second time in1988, after beating the U.S. team for the second time in the semifinal, and the Yugoslavs in the gold medal game.
The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of theEastern Bloc countries eroded the ideology of the pureamateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. TheSoviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally listed in the military, but all of whom were in fact paid by the state to train full-time.[4][9][10][11] In April 1989, through the leadership of Secretary GeneralBorislav Stanković,FIBA approved the rule that allowedNBA players to compete in international tournaments, including the Olympics.[4] In the1992 Summer Olympics, theU.S. "Dream Team"won the gold medal with an average winning margin of 44 points per game, and without calling a timeout. By this time, theSoviet Union andYugoslavia no longer existed, but their successor states continued to be among the leading forces. Two newly independent countries of the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union,Croatia andLithuania, won the silver and bronze medals respectively.
The American team repeated its victory in1996 and2000, but its performance was not as dominant as in 1992. Since active NBA players have been allowed to compete in the Summer Olympics, the 1996 Games inAtlanta is the only instance where the Olympic host city also had a home NBA team — theHawks.Yugoslavia was the runner-up in Atlanta, andFrance inSydney, with Lithuania winning bronze again on both occasions.
The renewed dominance of the U.S. was interrupted in2004, when the Americans barely made it to the semifinal, after losing toPuerto Rico andLithuania in the preliminaries;Argentina defeated them in the semifinals, on their way to a gold medal finish, where they beatItaly in the final, and became the fourth team to win the Olympic title.
The Americansregrouped in2008, beating the reigningFIBA world champions,Spain, in an intense gold medal game, with the Argentines beating the Lithuanians in the bronze medal game. The Americans and the Spaniards met again in the2012 gold medal game, with theU.S. again winning, although with the closest winning margin for the American team. TheU.S. won again in2016, defeating the Serbians in the gold medal game, a rematch of the2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Final, after eliminating the Spaniards, who settled for bronze. TheAmerican team defended their title by winning again at the2020 Games in Tokyo, extending their run to four consecutive gold medal finishes, and seven out of the last eight.
Thefirst women's tournament was staged in the1976 Summer Olympics. TheSoviet Union won five straight games, becoming the inaugural champion. The next two tournaments followed the six-team round-robin format, with the Soviets defending their title in1980 amid the U.S.-led boycott, and theU.S. winning in1984, against theSouth Koreans, amid the Soviet-led boycott. In1988, the tournament expanded into eight teams, with the Americans beatingYugoslavia in the gold medal game. In1992, theUnified Team, consisting of the formerSoviet republics, defeatedChina in the gold medal game. In1996, the tournament settled into its current 12-team format; the U.S. has swept all of the tournaments since then, winning 61 consecutive games.
^The O2 Arena was known as the North Greenwich Arena during the games due to Olympics regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites.
^The Accor Arena is known as the Bercy Arena during the games due to Olympics regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites.
^abDue to Olympic regulations regarding corporate sponsorship of event sites, this venue will be known by a yet-to-be-determined name during the Games.
As of2012, the qualifying process consists of three stages:
1 team (for each gender) qualifies as the reigning world champion.
7 teams for men and 5 for women qualify through their respective regional championships.
3 teams for men and 5 for women qualify through a world qualifying tournament, in which the best teams which did not qualify directly from each zone compete for the remaining berths.
Additionally, the teams of the host nation qualify automatically.
Zone
Men
Women
World Cup
1
1
African championship
1
1
Americas championship
2
1
Asian championship
1
1
European championship
2
1
Oceania championship
1
1
World qualifying tournament
3
5
Host Nation
1
1
Total
12
12
In 2020, the men's tournament will have a new qualification system. After the2019 FIBA World Cup, seven teams will qualify directly: the top two European and American teams, and the top team from Africa, Asia and Oceania. The next 16 best teams from the FIBA World Cup will join the two teams from each continent at the Olympic qualifiers. It will feature four groups of six teams, where the best team of each group will get the remaining spots at the Olympics. The continental championships will no longer be used for Olympic qualifying.
TheSoviet Union (as of 1992) andYugoslavia (as of 2006) are defunct. No team carried over the records of these nations.
Yugoslavia has been the designation from two distinct national entities: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1988 formed as a joint state of 6 republics; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1996 to 2006 formed as a joint state by only Montenegro and Serbia. In 2003, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro, however both Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro represented the same national entity: a joint state of Serbia and Montenegro.
Soviet Union (as of 1992) andYugoslavia (as of 2006) are defunct. No team carried over the records of these nations.
Yugoslavia has been the designation from two distinct national entities: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1988 formed as a joint state of 6 republics; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1996 to 2006 formed as a joint state by only Montenegro and Serbia.
Soviet Union (as of 1992) andYugoslavia (as of 2006) are defunct. No team carried over the records of these nations.
Yugoslavia has been the designation from two distinct national entities: Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1948 to 1988 formed as a joint state of 6 republics; Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1996 to 2006 formed as a joint state by only Montenegro and Serbia. In 2003, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was renamed to Serbia and Montenegro, however both Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro represented the same national entity: a joint state of Montenegro and Serbia.