Basketball was invented by
James Naismith in
Springfield, Massachusetts, in 1891. Within a few decades, the new game became popular throughout the United States as an indoor sport. The popularity spread overseas and the
International Basketball Federation (FIBA) was organized in 1932 in
Geneva, Switzerland. The
Young Men's Christian Association (YMCA) had a big part in the spread of this sport to many countries, and as many as 21 teams competed in the first Olympic basketball tournament.—a
Kansas Jayhawks collegiate coach—the first Olympic basketball tournament was organized in the
1936 Berlin Olympics on outdoor tennis courts. Dr. Naismith presented the medals to the top three teams. According to the Olympic rules of that time, all of the competitors were amateurs. The tournament was held indoors for the first time in
1948. The
American team proved its dominance, winning the first seven Olympic tournaments through
1968, without losing a single game. While the Americans were barred from sending a team that contained players from the professional
National Basketball Association, they instead sent in college players; teams from some other countries sent in their best players, as some of their players were classified as "amateur" by FIBA, by earning allowances instead of wages.
Munich and after The U.S. winning streak ended in
1972, when the
Soviet Union controversially won the
gold medal game against the United States by one point. The U.S. team reclaimed the gold medal in
1976, with
Yugoslavia, which had beaten the Soviet Union in the semifinal, finishing runner-up for the second time. In
1980, with the Americans' absence due to the
boycott, Yugoslavia became the third team to win the title, after beating the Soviets anew in the semifinals and
Italy in the final. The Americans regained the title in
1984, by beating
Spain in the final, with the Soviets
boycotting this time. The Soviets won the gold medal for the second time in
1988, after beating the U.S. team for the second time in the semifinal, and the Yugoslavs in the gold medal game.
Professional era: renewed American dominance The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the
Eastern Bloc countries eroded the ideology of the pure
amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. The
Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally listed in the military, but all of whom were in fact paid by the state to train full-time. In April 1989, through the leadership of Secretary General
Borislav Stanković,
FIBA approved the rule that allowed
NBA players to compete in international tournaments, including the Olympics. In the
1992 Summer Olympics, the
U.S. "Dream Team" won the gold medal with an average winning margin of 44 points per game, and without calling a timeout. By this time, the
Soviet Union and
Yugoslavia no longer existed, but their successor states continued to be among the leading forces. Two newly independent countries of the former Yugoslavia and Soviet Union,
Croatia and
Lithuania, won the silver and bronze medals respectively. The American team repeated its victory in
1996 and
2000, but its performance was not as dominant as in 1992. Since active NBA players have been allowed to compete in the Summer Olympics, the 1996 Games in
Atlanta is the only instance where the Olympic host city also had a home NBA team — the
Hawks.
Yugoslavia was the runner-up in Atlanta, and
France in
Sydney, with Lithuania winning bronze again on both occasions. The renewed dominance of the U.S. was interrupted in
2004, when the Americans barely made it to the semifinal, after losing to
Puerto Rico and
Lithuania in the preliminaries;
Argentina defeated them in the semifinals, on their way to a gold medal finish, where they beat
Italy in the final, and became the fourth team to win the Olympic title. The Americans
regrouped in
2008, beating the reigning
FIBA world champions,
Spain, in an intense gold medal game, with the Argentines beating the Lithuanians in the bronze medal game. The Americans and the Spaniards met again in the
2012 gold medal game, with the
U.S. again winning, although with the closest winning margin for the American team. The
U.S. won again in
2016, defeating the Serbians in the gold medal game, a rematch of the
2014 FIBA Basketball World Cup Final, after eliminating the Spaniards, who settled for bronze. The
American team defended their title by winning again at the
2020 Games in Tokyo, extending their run to four consecutive gold medal finishes, and seven out of the last eight. Although the United States lost a game in the 2020 games to France in the preliminary rounds, ending the United States 25 game winning streak in olympic competition. In the 2024 Olympics in Paris the United States won their 5th consecutive Gold Medal, defeating the host nation France in the Gold Medal game.
Women The
first women's tournament was staged in the
1976 Summer Olympics. The
Soviet Union won five straight games, becoming the inaugural champion. The next two tournaments followed the six-team round-robin format, with the Soviets defending their title in
1980 amid the U.S.-led boycott, and the
U.S. winning in
1984, against the
South Koreans, amid the Soviet-led boycott. In
1988, the tournament expanded into eight teams, with the Americans beating
Yugoslavia in the gold medal game. In
1992, the
Unified Team, consisting of the former
Soviet republics, defeated
China in the gold medal game. In
1996, the tournament settled into its current 12-team format; the U.S. has swept all of the tournaments since then, winning 61 consecutive games. Their run represents the longest gold medal streak in Olympic basketball history and the longest period of dominance by any team in an Olympic team sport. During this period, the program featured multiple generations of prominent players, including
Lisa Leslie,
Diana Taurasi,
Sue Bird,
Tamika Catchings, and
Breanna Stewart. National teams from countries such as
Australia,
Spain,
France and
China emerged as consistent medal contenders during this era amidst the rise of women's basketball worldwide. ==Venues==