Germany celebrates with the trophy after winning the championship game of the Basketball World Cup against Serbia in Manila, Philippines, Sunday, Sept. 10, 2023. - AP
MANILA, Philippines (AP): FIBA has confirmed the 19 national teams that used the World Cup to play their way into last-chance qualifying tournaments for the Paris Olympics next summer.
From Europe, these nine nations - Latvia, Lithuania, Slovenia, Italy, Spain, Montenegro, Greece, Georgia and Finland -- moved into the qualifying tournament.
Puerto Rico, Brazil, Dominican Republic and Mexico advanced from the Americas Region.
Egypt, Angola and Ivory Coast will move on from Africa, and from Asia and Oceania the teams that advanced were Lebanon, Philippines and New Zealand.
They’ll join five winners of pre-qualifying tournaments -- Cameroon, Bahamas, Bahrain, Poland and Croatia -- in the last-ditch chances to make the Olympic field.
The tournaments are currently scheduled for July 2-7, 2024. The process of bidding to be host sites, and the awarding of those sites, is not completed.
The 24 still-alive nations will be drawn into one of four tournaments composed of six teams apiece. The four winners of those tournaments will reach the Paris Olympics, where they’ll join France, World Cup champion Germany, Serbia, Canada, the U.S., Australia, Japan and South Sudan in the Olympic field.
The World Cup is the primary qualifier for the Olympics.
France got its bid as the host nation and the seven other teams with spots already secured got them through their finish at the World Cup.
- AP NBA: https://apnews.com/hub/nba and AP sports: https://apnews.com/sports
