MIES, Switzerland, Dec. 9 (Xinhua) — FIBA Secretary General Andreas Zagklis has described 2024 as a record-breaking 12 months for 3×3 basketball.
Zagklis talked to the media on the annual end-of-year video convention on Monday, giving full credit score to the event of 3×3 basketball after a profitable competitors on the Place de la Concorde on the 2024 Paris Olympic Games.
“For 3×3, it’s a record-breaking year in terms of events and social media,” Zagklis remarked.
According to Zagklis, FIBA has greater than 57 million followers on all its platforms, and 5 billion views on its social media.
“We continue to believe in the showcase and certainly outreach potential that the Olympics give to the basketball side,” he added.
Discussing the way forward for 3×3 basketball, Zagklis mentioned the format provides smaller international locations extra alternatives to achieve podiums in main worldwide competitions.
“Madagascar challenged and even beat France at the World Cup. Mongolia led in the men’s Olympic Qualifying Tournaments twice before missing the last shot to go to the Olympics. Latvia won the gold medal [at the Tokyo Olympics] in 2021, and now we have the Netherlands as the world champions.”
“We do believe that 3×3 makes our sport more democratic, allowing countries of smaller population and countries with less infrastructure to have the Olympic dream alive and have it very accessible,” the FIBA secretary normal famous.
Zagklis mentioned the 3×3 basketball competitors on the 2026 Dakar Youth Olympic Games can have 12 groups, a quantity that FIBA can be in search of for LA28 and Brisbane 2032. Paris 2024 featured eight groups for every gender in 3×3 basketball.
“We are already applying for that [12 teams] for 2028 … There is little doubt that 3×3 will be followed very closely in LA, and loved by the local audience. I expect 3×3 to really go to the next level in LA28,” he added.