 | |
| No. 21 – Bourges | |
|---|---|
| Position | Shooting guard |
| League | La Boulangère Wonderligue |
| Personal information | |
| Born | (1995-10-25)25 October 1995 (age 30) Clermont-Ferrand, France |
| Nationality | French |
| Listed height | 6 ft 0 in (1.83 m) |
| Career information | |
| Playing career | 2013–present |
| Career history | |
| 2013–2016 | Cavigal Nice |
| 2016–2017 | Roannais |
| 2017–2018 | Reims |
| 2018–2020 | Charnay |
| 2020–2023 | Bourges |
| 2024–present | Bourges |
| Career highlights | |
| |
Laëtitia Guapo (born 25 October 1995) is a Frenchbasketball player who plays as ashooting guard.
Born inClermont-Ferrand to a footballer father of Spanish origin[1] and a basketball player mother, Guapo followed her mother's path at theLa Roche-Blanche club, in the Clermont-Ferrand metropolitan area. She joined the renownedStade Clermontois club and the CREPS ofVichy, then the INSEP.[2] · [1] Her parents were initially opposed to her leaving for Vichy in 2008, at the age of 12, before being convinced to byIsabelle Fijalkowski.[1]
Having limited playing time withCavigal Nice, Guapo returned to Ligue 2 in Roannais, then to Reims and finally to Charnay where she won (after the one in 2015 with Nice) her second Ligue 2 championship.[3]
With an excellent first season in LFB with Charnay (12.5 points, 5.8 rebounds and 4 assists per game, leading her team in all three categories),[4] Guapo signed for theEuroLeague club Bourges.[5] With 4 wins and 12 losses, Charnay was in a good position to secure survival before the season was interrupted early due to theCOVID-19 pandemic.[4]
For her first match in Tango colors, a 74 to 62 victory against Lyon, Guapo was the top scorer with 22 points and the best rebounder (6) of her team despite losing 5 balls.[6] In 2020, she signed for six years withTango Bourges.[1]
Guapo discovered3x3 basketball in 2016 while she was at INSEP.[1]
At the end of 2016, while a STAPS student atJean Monnet University inSaint-Étienne, Guapo won the 3x3 university world title in China with Caroline Hériaud by hitting a two-point shot in overtime. Spotted by FFBB coach Richard Billant, she was invited to a training camp in Voiron in June 2017.
The coach of the French teams Karim Souchu asked Guapo for the U23 Nations League final, but she had to give up, as she was primarily focused on her PE teacher profession.[3][2] She only revealed herself in 2019 with two international medals and winner of the Women's Series withMamignan Touré andAna-Maria Filip.[3]
Due to a particular selection method, France must however play a qualifying tournament to participate in theTokyo Olympic Games.[3] This pre-Olympic tournament was postponed from March 2020 in India to May 2021 in Austria.[2] In the spring of 2020, she was world number 1 in 3x3.[3]
In May 2021, Guapo was a member of the3x3 French team that qualified for theTokyo Olympic tournament, withHortense Limouzin,Myriam Djekoundade andMarie-Ève Paget.[1][7] France then lost the bronze medal match in the tournament. She was ranked the best player in the world for the year.[1]
The following year in Antwerp, Guapo became world champion within the same team. Captaining the team, she was named best player of the competition. She also won theAlain Gilles Trophy for the best player in France.[1]
While playing five-a-side basketball for Tango Bourges, Guapo was made available to the French federation for a year to prepare for the Olympic Games in 3x3 basketball. Indeed, she could not play it permanently, as the sport was not professionalized; in France at the beginning of the 2020s, it was only possible to make a living from five-a-side basketball.[1]
Guapo participated in thewomen's 3x3 basketball tournament at the2024 Summer Olympics, in Yann Julien's selection.[1] Her partner,Franck Seguela, was a member of the French men's team in the same sport, and they organized training camps for young people together.[1]
In addition to her aggressive attacking game, Guapo has exceptional physical endurance qualities for a basketball player, being able to run 10,000 meters in 35 minutes, which is an asset for three-player games.[3]
