After returning with the bronze in 2006, Candace Parker is hoping to be able to help the U.S. to a gold medal at the 2010 World Championship.

• Nov. 24, 2009
• Basic Facts on the 2010 Competition

FIBA conducted the draw for the 2010 FIBA World Championship for Women on Nov. 24 in Karlovy Vary, Czech Republic, host of next year’s World Championship finals. The USA has been placed in Group B, and will face France, Greece and Senegal in the first round of games. Sixteen countries have qualified to compete in the 2010 FIBA World Championship that will be held Sept. 23 – Oct. 3 in Brno, Karlovy Vary and Ostrava, Czech Republic, with the gold medal winner earning a berth to the 2012 Olympic Games.

“Every group is going to have their share of teams that are there thinking they can compete and win the world championship,” said 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team and University of Connecticut head coach Geno Auriemma. “Some teams are there for the first time or are not as experienced and I think in our group we’ve got a little bit of both. I know that we’re going to try to do what we have to do to prepare and not necessarily put all of our focus on who we’re playing, but how well we’re playing when the tournament begins.”

The 12 remaining national teams were distributed as such: Group A includes Australia, Belarus, Canada and China; Group C consists of Brazil, Mali, South Korea and Spain; and Group D is comprised of Argentina, Czech Republic, Japan and Russia.

First and second round games for Groups A and B will be held in Ostrova, while Brno is the first and second round site for teams in Groups C and D. The specific game schedule will be announced by FIBA at a later date. Groups A, B and E will compete in Ostrava; Groups C, D and F will compete in Brno. The quarterfinals, semifinals and finals will be held in Karlovy Vary.

The preliminary round will be played Sept. 23-25 utilizing a round-robin format within each preliminary round group. The top three finishing teams from each group will advance to second round play with the top teams in Groups A and B merging into Group E and the top teams in Groups C and D forming Group F. The twelve teams qualified for the second round, which will be played Sept. 27-29, will feature six teams in each group and each team will play the three new teams in its second round group. Teams finishing in first through fourth places in the second round will advance to the Oct. 1 quarterfinals. Semifinals are slated for Oct. 2 and the gold medal game will be contested on Oct. 3.

As the host country, the Czech Republic earned an automatic berth to the 2010 FIBA World Championship and the USA secured its berth with a gold medal finish in the 2008 Olympic Games. The remaining 14 teams qualified for the ’10 Worlds through FIBA Zone qualification tournaments held in 2009. At the 2009 FIBA Africa Championship Senegal finished with the gold medal and Mali captured silver to earn berths to next year’s competition; FIBA Americas will be represented by gold medalist Brazil, silver medalist Argentina and bronze medalist Canada; teams from FIBA Asia will include gold medalist China, silver medalist South Korea and bronze medalist Japan; while FIBA Europe will be represented by gold medalist France, silver medalist Russia, bronze medalist Spain, fourth place finisher Belarus and fifth place finisher Greece; while Australia captured FIBA Oceania’s lone qualifying berth.

The 2009-12 USA Basketball Women’s National Team roster currently includes two-time Olympic gold medalists Sue Bird (Seattle Storm), Tamika Catchings (Indiana Fever) and Diana Taurasi (Phoenix Mercury); as well as ’08 gold medalists Seimone Augustus (Minnesota Lynx), Sylvia Fowles (Chicago Sky), Kara Lawson (Sacramento Monarchs), Candace Parker (Los Angeles Sparks) and Cappie Pondexter (Phoenix Mercury).

As was the case over the last quadrennium, the USA team will be fluid and athletes will be added progressively to the 2009-12 USA National Team roster. It is expected that the official 12-member 2010 USA World Championship and 2012 U.S. Olympic teams, should the USA qualify, will be comprised of players from the 2009-12 USA National Team.

Auriemma will be assisted through the 2010 FIBA World Championship by DePaul University head coach Doug Bruno and Minnesota Lynx head coach Jennifer Gillom.

In the past dozen years, the highly successful USA Basketball Women’s National Team program, ranked No. 1 in the world by FIBA, has posted a 63-1 slate in major international competitions, winning four consecutive Olympic gold medals (1996, 2000, 2004, 2008), two FIBA World Championship golds (1998, 2002), one FIBA World Championship bronze medal (2006) and one FIBA Americas Championship gold medal (2007).

FIBA World Championship for Women
The FIBA World Championship has been contested essentially every four years since 1953, and the United States captured the first two Worlds gold medals before the beginning of the Soviet domination of women’s basketball was kicked-off at the 1959 World Championship. The former USSR put together a string of five straight golds (1959, 1964, 1967, 1971, 1975), before the United States reclaimed gold in 1979. The Soviet Union in 1983 earned its final World Championship crown as the USA went on to capture four of the next five World Championships (1986, 1990, 1998, 2002). The only other nations to break into the gold medal column at this event are Australia, the defending world champion, and Brazil, which defeated the USA in the 1994 semifinals and went on to take the top spot that year.

The USA owns a record seven gold medals, one silver medal and two bronze medals in FIBA World Championship play, while compiling an all-time 88-21 record at the event. In 2006, the most recent World Championship, the U.S. fell 75-68 to Russia in the semifinals, but rebounded to take host Brazil 99-59 in the bronze medal game and finish with an 8-1 record. Australia earned the gold after defeating Russia 91-74 in the final contest.

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