Reporter Gao Bing.
During the Spring Festival this year, the Chinese women's basketball team will compete in Xi'an, Shaanxi Province for 4 days and 3 matches to compete for the qualification for the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
In the women's basketball qualifying round for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, China is in the same group as France, New Zealand and Puerto Rico. According to the schedule, the first game of the Chinese women's basketball team in the Paris Olympic Qualifying Tournament will be against New Zealand on February 8 (the 29th day of the lunar month), against the French team on February 10 (the first day of the first lunar month), and against the Puerto Rico team on February 11 (the second day of the first lunar month).
According to reports, a total of 16 teams participated in the women's basketball qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics, divided into 4 groups, and the top 3 in each group will qualify for the Olympics. In this group, the French women's basketball team, the host of the Paris Olympics, has locked the Olympic quota in advance, and the Chinese team will compete with the New Zealand team and the Puerto Rico team for "3 for 2", and the last team in the group will miss the Paris Olympics.
Zheng Wei, head coach of the Chinese women's basketball team, said that the team's preparation time is relatively short, and the players will be very hard and difficult. The team will definitely carry forward the tenacious fighting spirit of the Chinese women's basketball team, overcome all difficulties, and strive for good results with the greatest efforts.
Yao Ming, chairman of the Chinese Basketball Association, said that the best preparation for the Olympic qualifying tournament is the top priority of the Chinese women's basketball team this year, and for the athletes, coaches and staff of the Chinese women's basketball team, this will be another Spring Festival that cannot be reunited with their families.
The ancient city of Xi'an, where the competition is located, has recently successfully hosted a number of world-class events such as the FINA Diving World Cup and the men's volleyball qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics. Since the beginning of this year, Shaanxi Province has held high-level events such as the National Women's Basketball Championship and the China-Australia Women's Basketball Warm-up Tournament around the basketball project, as well as mass events such as the Shaanxi 3x3 Basketball League and the Shaanxi Hemei Rural Basketball Competition, and the basketball atmosphere has become more and more intense. As the first international competition to be held in Shaanxi Province in 2024, the women's basketball qualifying tournament for the Paris Olympics will add another "sports feast" to the ancient city of Xi'an.
The event coincided with the Chinese Lunar New Year, and Shaanxi carefully planned 12 supporting activities with the theme of "Basketball Welcomes the New Year and Sports for the New Year", which will dedicate a sports event, visual feast and cultural feast to the audience, and set off a "basketball boom" in the land of Sanqin.
In the past few days, Xi'an is preparing for this international event in all aspects, and the citizens are also enthusiastic about "watching the game at their doorstep". "I hope that the Chinese women's basketball girls will play well and achieve better results. Liu Nan, a citizen, said, "I am full of expectations for them to get tickets to the Paris Olympics in the ancient city of Xi'an." ”