The Tokyo Games went off this summer, in spite of host Japan’s pandemic-induced state of emergency. While I had mixed feelings as to whether or not the Games should occur, once they were underway, I was all-in on the basketball tournaments – both the classic 5X5 and inaugural 3X3 men’s and women’s versions.
Lots of people asked me what I thought of the introduction of 3X3 basketball. Although the time differential between the Eastern U.S. and Tokyo meant that I only snatched glimpses of the live matches, the style and panache preview a game much more vivant once in-person fans are added back into the equation. I’m very much looking forward to watching as the discipline grows and gains spectators (and media broadcasts?).
On the 5X5 side, the main storyline I tracked was the burgeoning rivalry between Team USA and France. As I wrote for The Washington Post’s Made By History column, these oldest of allies’ hoops rivalry is heating up on-court thanks to the generations of informal sports diplomacy.
While for most of the 20th century that centered predominantly around Americans going to France to play the game, since 1997-98 its also heavily influenced by French coming to the United States to pursue their hoops dreams in the NBA, WNBA, and NCAA. This, of course, is one of the key pillars of my in-process book, Basketball Empire: A hidden story of the NBA’s globalization.
But it’s also one branch of the newly launched information and education campaign, #FranceAndUS, which celebrates French and American cultural ties via sports and sports diplomacy.
It will highlight Voices of the transatlantic influences in basketball, soccer, rugby, tennis, golf, alpine skiing, and more, past, present, and throughout the 2020s. Check out the site here, follow on Twitter and Instagram, and sign up for the newsletter here, which will launch this fall and be a different mix from what you receive here on the blog.
📧Email me if you or your organization would like to become involved in this multiyear initiative.
Other key Olympic storylines to keep an eye on:
In light of the successes of France’s team sports (gold medals in women’s and men’s handball and men’s volleyball, silver in men’s 5X5 basketball, and bronze in women’s 5X5 basketball), comments by French Minister of Education, Youth and Sport Jean-Michel Blanquer that the success of the BVH teams was due to school sports has ignited a firestorm of controversy. As readers of The Making of Les Bleus will know, French sports success is due to the national sports schools (INSEP and its regional feeder hubs) and those run by professional clubs.
The sports diplomacy and activism of Belarussian athletes once again returned to the limelight with the case of track and field athlete Krystsina Tsimanouskaya, who was granted asylum in Poland after her coaches tried to force her back to Belarus. She is now auctioning off her European Games 2019 silver medal to help free Belarussian atheltes still detailed by the regime. And this week, U.S. President Joe Biden signed an Executive Order placing sanctions on the Belarussian national Olympic Committee. This story isn’t over, so stay tuned. Meanwhile, you can learn more from former Belarussian Olympic basketballer and WNBA player Yelana Leuchanka’s June interview with BBC World SportsHour.
The Olympic cycle turns over to Paris ahead of the 2024 Games. Hold on to your hats as things are about to heat up on the France #sportsdiplomacy front.