Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs)

The 2016 FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments (OQTs) will take place in Turin (Italy), Manila (Philippines) and Belgrade (Serbia) in the week of 4-10 July.

Eighteen (18) teams that fell short of qualifying directly for the Rio 2016 Games will get another shot at fulfilling their Olympic aspirations by doing battle at three six-teams tournaments. The winner of each event will punch a ticket for Brazil. 

The teams are: Angola, Canada, Czech Republic, France, Greece, Iran, Italy, Japan, Mexico, New Zealand, Philippines, Puerto Rico, Senegal, Serbia and Tunisia. In line with the final standings of EuroBasket 2015 and the FIBA World Ranking, Latvia, Croatia and Turkey will be invited to complete the 18-team OQTs line-up.

This new, dynamic and exciting format offers more teams with the opportunity to qualify for the Olympics and to host prestigious FIBA events. It replaces the previous system which had a single 12-team Olympic Qualifying Tournament.

The draws for the three OQTs will take place at The House of Basketball, FIBA's headquarters, on Tuesday 26 January (18:30 CET/GMT +1) and can be watched live on youtube.com/fiba.

HISTORY

The most recent editions of the FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournament took place in 2008 and in 2012. They served up some particularly memorable games, as well as incredible excitement and tension - with unforgettable scenes of joy from triumphant players, coaches, staff and fans - all celebrating their precious passage to the Olympic Games.

That famously included NBA star and Germany legend Dirk Nowitzki finally getting to the Olympics for the first time in his illustrious career in 2008 after taking his country to the Beijing Games.

And, with three FIBA Olympic Qualifying Tournaments planned for 2016, similarly emotional and exhilarating moments are lying in wait.