French 3X3 Basketball Teams Compete for Qualification to Paris 2024 at International Tournament in Clermont-Ferrand

On Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June, four French 3X3 basketball teams will take part in the international tournament organized in Clermont-Ferrand. Women, men, young people, from Marseille or even Paris, all will fight to win the competition, with in mind, a potential qualification for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

A step towards the Olympic Games. Saturday 10 and Sunday 11 June, a dozen 3X3 basketball teams, women and men, from all over the world, will compete at the FIBA 3X3 Challenger and Women’s series organized in Clermont-Ferrand. Among them, there are two French men’s teams, Paris and Marseille, and two women’s teams, including one under 24 years old.

3X3 Basketball is the world’s first urban team sport. It is characterized by teams made up of three players and a substitute playing on a half court. Since the Tokyo Games, this discipline has been an Olympic sport. The stage in Clermont-Ferrand, the 3ᵉ of the championship which takes place over twenty meetings for women and thirty for men around the world, counts for the international ranking (international ranking) of the 2024 Olympic Games.

Due to weather forecasts, the competition is moved from Place de Jaude to Salle Fleury in Clermont-Ferrand. Admission is free, within the limit of 500 places available.

For its entry into the running in the Women’s series on its soil, France will present two teams. Hortense Limouzin, player at Saint-Armand Hainaut Basket, Marie Mané, from Landerneau Bretagne Basket, Marie-Michelle Milapie, from Magnolia Basket Campobasso in Italy and Laetitia Guapo, from Bourges Basket will make up the first team. In total, coach Yann Julien has formed a team of 12 basketball players who take turns in the various international competitions.

The Auvergne at home, world champion with Les Bleues in 2022, hopes to carry her teammates to victory. The previous year, France had lost in the final against Canada 16 to 21. In the race to qualify for the Olympic Games, every opportunity to score points is important. Winning this stage in Clermont-Ferrand earns an average of 25,000 points, compared to 18 for a World Cup and 17,000 for a European Cup. The four players have just been selected with four other basketball players to devote themselves exclusively to preparing 3X3 basketball for selection at the Paris 2024 Games.

An opportunity that the France U24 team does not want to miss. Yohana Ewodo from the Tarbes Gespe Bigorre club, Sixtine Macquet, from Landerneau Bretagne Basket, Océane Monpierre, from La Roche Vendée and Marie Pardon, from Tarbes Gespe Bigorre will also play this Saturday. The two teams will begin the qualifying phases on June 9 in the same group, the A, against Turkey, and the Chinese team of Sc Yuanda, which will count in its workforce the French Maud Stervinou (French n°5).

If France starts as favourite, pointing to the first place in the world ranking with his team 1, China has not said its last word. As a reminder, the country finished fourth in the World Cup, after losing by a single point against Australia for the bronze medal. With two teams present at the tournament, the country is aiming for a third consecutive victory in the Women’s series, after Wuhan and Astara.

A total of eight women’s teams from the four corners of the globe will compete for the gold medal in Clermont-Ferrand. In addition to the two Chinese and French teams, and Turkey, we can find Lithuania, Spain and Switzerland.

For their part, the French men will fight for a qualification for one of the masters of the World Tour. This is the case of the Paris team, which came fourth at the first stage of the championship in Shenzhen last May. The French quartet, quarter-finalists at the 3X3 World Cup with Alex Vialaret, Vincent Fauche, Jules Rambaut and Franck Seguela, hopes to win one of the precious tickets for the Prague master.

“When you go up to a high cardio level, you have to know how to make the right decisions”, underlines Alex Vialaret, in full preparation on his new ground for the next 72 hours. “The discipline is really unique. You only play 10 minutes or 21 points. Possessions only last 12 seconds so every detail counts”adds the 42ᵉ player in the world, whose spot will not be obvious in this tournament.

He will first have to, with his teammates, get out of his pool against the Dutch and the Japanese, before facing the Puerto Ricans who made a sensational entrance by climbing to the semi-finals of the Manila Master, or again to Serbs from Liman systematically in the final of the Challengers disputed this season.

Paris will not be the only French team to tread the parquet floor of the Fleury room in Clermont-Ferrand. The Marseille players, Mathéo Cauwet from Rouen Métropole, Léopold Delaunay from the Vichy-Clermont club, Maxime Semelet from Champagne Basket and Thirouard-Samson from Lille Métropole, will participate in this third stage of the Challengers circuit, with the same objectives as Paris, to win a place for the master in Prague.

The French men and women will be able to count on their public to boost them, despite the change of venue at the last minute. “It’s a shame. There were a lot of people planned for Place Jaude. Now the show will always be there so I think everyone will know how to make the trip. It’s not very far”concludes Alex Vialaret with a smile.