London 2012 Basketball Schedule

London 2012 Basketball Competition Schedule Announced

The London 2012 Olympic Basketball competition schedule has been confirmed, revealing when the teams will play each other in the preliminary rounds of the tournament at the Basketball Arena on the Olympic Park.

(PRWEB) May 23, 2012

The London 2012 Olympic Basketball competition schedule has been confirmed, revealing when the teams will play each other in the preliminary rounds of the tournament at the Basketball Arena on the Olympic Park.

The Women’s tournament will tip-off on Saturday 28 July and among the games on the first day will see Great Britain against world number two Australia. The Men’s tournament will tip-off on Sunday 29 July when games on the first day of competition include world number one USA beginning their defence of their Olympic title against France.

The Men’s and Women’s Olympic Basketball tournaments will each feature 12 teams. For the Men’s competition, nine teams have already qualified for London 2012 with the remaining three places to be decided at an Olympic Qualifying tournament in Venezuela from the 2nd–8th July. For the Women’s competition, seven teams have already qualified with the remaining five places to be decided at an Olympic Qualifying tournament in Turkey from the 25th June to 1st July. 

• The full Olympic Basketball competition schedule can be viewed here

Debbie Jevans, Director of Sport at LOCOG said: “TheOlympic Basketball tournament is sure to be one of the big hits of the summer with some of the biggest basketball stars in the world coming to London to compete for Gold. With the competition schedule now confirmed, teams and fans alike can start to get ready for the exciting encounters, world-class players and top teams we’ll see in action this summer.”

FIBA Secretary General and IOC Member Patrick Baumann said: "For every major Championship, the draw and subsequently the unveiling of the full competition schedule make for a major milestone. Players begin picturing themselves on the court and thinking about match-ups. Fans start imagining the atmosphere. The 2008 Men's Final between the USA and Spain was one of the greatest Olympic moments. It showed the huge strides international basketball had made in becoming more and more competitive. I expect this year's Olympic Basketball Tournaments will be a great and memorable spectacle for all."

Teams have been drawn into two groups for the Preliminary rounds of the Men’s and Women’s tournament. Teams will play each other in their respective groups during the Preliminary rounds before the top four teams from each groups move on to the Quarter-Finals of a standard knock-out tournament. The confirmed groups for the Preliminary stages are:

Olympic Men’s tournament:

Group A
Argentina
France
Tunisia
USA
2 remaining qualifiers

Group B
Australia
Brazil
China
Great Britain
Spain
1 remaining qualifier

(The remaining 3 qualifiers for the Men’s tournament will be decided at the Olympic qualifying tournament featuring Angola, Dominican Republic, Greece, Jordan, Korea, Lithuania, FYROM, New Zealand, Nigeria, Puerto Rico, Russia and Venezuela – a draw on the final day of the qualifying tournament on July 8th will determine which of the 3 qualifying teams join which groups)

Olympic Women’s tournament:

Group A
Angola,
China,
USA
3 remaining qualifiers

Group B
Australia,
Brazil,
Great Britain,
Russia
2 remaining qualifiers

(The remaining 5 qualifiers in the Women’s tournament will be decided at the Olympic qualifying tournament featuring Argentina, Canada, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Japan, Korea, Mali, Mozambique, New Zealand, Puerto Rico and Turkey – a draw on the final day of the qualifying tournament on 1st July will determine which of the 5 qualifying teams join which groups)

During the London 2012 Games, the Basketball Arena on the Olympic Park will host the Men’s preliminary games and Women’s event up to quarter final stage. The men’s quarter-finals and women’s semi-finals onwards will then move to the North Greenwich Arena.

Notes to editors:

1. Images of the Basketball Arena can be downloaded from http://mm.gettyimages.com/mm/nicePath/locog?nav=pr152266667

2. Footage of the Basketball Arena is available from the London 2012 Footage Library -http://footagelibrary.london2012.com

3. For more information on the Olympic Basketball tournaments please go to http://london2012.fiba.com/

For further information please contact the London 2012 Press Office.

London 2012 Games partners:

The Worldwide Olympic Partners who support the London 2012 Olympic Games and the National Olympic Committees around the world are Coca-Cola, Acer, Atos, Dow, GE, McDonald’s, Omega, Panasonic, Procter and Gamble, Samsung and Visa.

LOCOG has seven domestic Tier One Partners - adidas, BMW, BP, British Airways, BT, EDF and Lloyds TSB. There are seven domestic Tier Two Supporters – Adecco, ArcelorMittal, Cadbury, Cisco, Deloitte, Thomas Cook and UPS. There are now twenty-eight domestic Tier Three Suppliers and Providers – Aggreko, Airwave, Atkins, Boston Consulting Group, CBS Outdoor, Crystal CG, Eurostar, Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer LLP, G4S, GSK, Gymnova, Heathrow Airport, Heineken UK, Holiday Inn, John Lewis, McCann Worldgroup, Mondo, NATURE VALLEY, Next, Nielsen, Populous, Rapiscan Systems, Rio Tinto, Technogym, Thames Water, Ticketmaster, Trebor and Westfield.

There is one domestic Tier One Paralympic Games-only Partner, Sainsbury’s and one domestic Tier Three Paralympic Games-only Supplier, Otto Bock. The London 2012 Paralympic Games also acknowledges the support of the National Lottery.