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Although not everything will depend on their performance, Puerto Rico’s early Sunday win over Italy in the World Cup FIBA Basketball World Cup 2023 This could mean not only a place in the quarter-finals, but a direct ticket to the 2024 Paris Olympics.

This World Cup competition will award tickets to the top two teams in America. Currently, the United States is the only country that has secured a spot in the quarterfinals. Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, Canada and Brazil play on Sunday for a place in the quarter-finals.

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Puerto Rico has not played in Olympic basketball since Athens 2004, an occasion on which the national team’s resounding victory against the American team Enibis is still remembered. It was the first time the United States lost a game at the Olympics since the incorporation of NBA players into its national teams.

But since then, Puerto Rico has never qualified for the Olympics again, remaining blank for four editions. And in 2024, there will be exactly 20 years without going to the Maximum Expo, after failing to get a ticket for the Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympics.

However, achieving qualification this time as part of their World Cup performance in the Philippines, is not as easy as it seems. Many results should coincide, and the main factor will be Puerto Rico’s advantage over Italy.

He is also a prominent statistician and sports historian Carlos Uriarteif the defeats of Canada, Brazil and the Dominican Republic on Sunday are added, along with the final victory of the Puerto Ricans, The national team will qualify directly for Paris 2024 alongside the United States, which has already qualified for the quarter-finals in this World Cup.

Aside from Puerto Rico vs. Italy, Serbia and the Dominican Republic will face off in the same Group A. The two teams that win those matches will be the two teams that qualify for the best-of-eight stages of the World Cup. The losers will qualify for a consolation round to determine places from ninth to sixteenth.

In Group L, Brazil will face Latvia at 5:45 a.m. JEST, and Canada will face Spain at 9:30 a.m.

But there are several additional possible scenarios. This does not mean that the United States has already secured its ticket to Paris 2024, because if two or more of the four American countries that will play tomorrow in the round of 16 qualify for the quarterfinals, they will continue to compete. With the United States to obtain two Olympic passports.

However, what will determine which two American teams qualify for the Olympics this World Cup is where they reach.

According to the Olympic qualification system. The FIBA ​​World Cup awards seven direct passes, divided into two for America, two for Europe, one for Africa, one for Asia, and one for Oceania. France, as the host country for the upcoming Olympic Games, has guaranteed participation in eight places.

The remaining four teams that will fill the 12-team quota to play in Paris 2024 will be decided in two Olympic qualifying matches to be held later next year.

There was already a FIBA ​​Olympic preliminary qualifying tournament in August, at continental level, among the 40 five-a-side national teams who did not qualify for the World Cup. They were divided into five tournaments. Of these 40, five have qualified for next year’s qualifiers, in which a total of 24 selected teams will participate.

The five countries that won the preliminary heats held last month and will go to the Olympic qualifiers are the Bahamas, Bahrain, Cameroon, Croatia and Poland.

Puerto Rico already has a spot in the playoffs.