2012 Olympic Games -- Just the Facts

SITE: London, England

DATES: July 27 - Aug. 12, 2012

BASKETBALL COMPETITION DATES: July 28 - Aug. 12, 2012

BASKETBALL VENUES: Olympic Park – Basketball Arena and North Greenwich Arena

EVENT WEB SITE: London-2012.co.uk

QUALIFIED NATIONS (12): Great Britain, the host country; the United States, which earned its berth by virtue of claiming the gold medal at the 2010 FIBA World Championship; Russia, winners of the 2011 EuroBasket; FIBA Asia champions China, and FIBA Oceania champion Australia have each qualified for the 2012 London Olympic Games women's basketball 12-nation field.

EVENT HISTORY: Women's basketball became a medal sport at the 1976 Olympics in Montreal, Canada. Since then, the Americans have collected a record six gold medals, one silver and one bronze medal, and own an amazing 50-3 (.943) overall record in eight Olympic appearances (the United States chose not to participate in the 1980 Olympic Games).

In capturing the 2008 Olympic gold medal the U.S. became the first women’s traditional team sport to claim four straight gold medals. Further, the win extended the USA’s Olympic winning streak to 33 games, dating back to 1992 bronze medal victory over Cuba, and marked the USA’s third straight victory over Australia in the Olympic gold medal game

The only other countries to break onto the gold medal podium in Olympic women’s basketball competition were the former Soviet Union (1976, 1980) and the Unified Team (1992), which was comprised of members from the former USSR.

COUNTRIES QUALIFIED FOR THE 2012 OLYMPIC WOMEN'S BASKETBALL COMPETITION:

• Host Country:Great Britain
  
• World Champion: United States
  
• FIBA Africa: Angola (gold medalist)
  
• FIBA Americas: Brazil (gold medalist)
  
• FIBA Asia: China (gold medalist)
  
• FIBA Europe: Russia (gold medalist)
  
• FIBA Oceania: Australia (gold medalist)
• 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament: TBD (top five finishing teams)

NOTE: The 2012 FIBA World Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be held June 25-July 1, 2012, in Ankara, Turkey. The Olympic qualifier will feature 12 nations from each of the five 2011 FIBA zone qualifying tournaments as follows: two from FIBA Africa, including Mozambique (replaced silver medalist Senegal which withdrew) and Mali (bronze medalists); three from FIBA Americas, including Argentina (silver medal), Canada (bronze medalist) and Puerto Rico (replaced fourth place finisher Cuba which withdrew); two from FIBA Asia, including South Korea (silver medalist) and Japan (bronze medalist); four from FIBA Europe, including Turkey (silver medalist), France (bronze medalist), Czech Republic (fourth place) and Croatia (fiftth place); and New Zealand from FIBA Oceania (silver medalist).