An Olympic sport since Tokyo 2020, 3×3 basketball will be held from July 30 to August 5 on the Place de la Concorde in Paris. The more or less knowledgeable public will be there to enjoy this urban sport that is growing in France.
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In front of the Obelisk of the Concorde, topped with its golden pyramid, 3×3 basketball, the world’s first urban team sport, began on Tuesday, July 30, for seven days of competition. This discipline, born in the streets at the end of the 1980s in the wake of streetball, which was then booming, was included in the program of the Youth Olympic Games in Singapore. The experience was repeated in 2014 for the Nanjing edition and in 2018 in Buenos Aires. The popular success of this young sport led the IOC to include 3×3 basketball in the Olympic program in 2017, for the Games of Tokyo 2020.
A summer atmosphere
Like the rugby 7also present at the Olympic Games, this high-speed basketball is very popular. In Paris, between two matches, a DJ gets the audience dancing and singing, who have plenty to enjoy for most of the evening.
In the stands, people are invited to count down before each match in a good-natured atmosphere. During the matches, the music never stops, giving a summer atmosphere like a seaside resort in the south of France. It feels like being on holiday, the children have the opportunity to enjoy the entertainment “, says a young man who came with his friends. A young woman who is not necessarily familiar with urban sports finds the event and the place spectacular.
In 3×3 basketball, two teams of three players (plus a substitute) compete outdoors on a half-court 15 m long by 11 m wide, with the objective of sending the ball into a basket attached to a 45 cm diameter circle located 3.05 m above the ground and fixed to a backboard. Both teams use a single basket.
Shots are worth one point for free throws (the player is then alone in front of the basket, without opposition) and those scored in the current game, if the player is placed inside a line placed 6.75 m from the circle. Shots scored outside this line are worth two points.
To win the game, the team must reach 21 points or be leading at the end of a 10-minute period. Overtime is played if the score is tied at the end of regulation time, the first team to score two points wins the game.
The French are aiming for medals
For both the women’s and men’s tournaments, eight teams are grouped into a single group, each playing the other seven. At the end of this first round, a knockout phase begins: the top two teams advance directly to the semi-finals, where they will play the winners of the play-offs between those ranked between 3rd and 6th place.
The dominant nation in the men’s discipline, Serbia had to settle for bronze in Tokyo. The United States, who had failed to qualify for the men’s event in Tokyo, are in Paris. On the French side, Les Bleus finished 3rd in the 2022 World Cup and 4th in Euro 2023. The women’s team has won the Euro three times (2018, 2019, 2022) as well as the World Cup in 2022, before failing in the final last year.
” We are not going there to participate, we are going there to seek medals, for both teams. Maybe the most beautiful one. In any case, we hope so and we are working on it. “, declared Alain Contensoux, DTN of the French Basketball Federation, a few weeks ago. For their first match, the French women won 21-19 against Poland on Tuesday, July 30.
Read alsoJO 2024 program and calendar