Who would have thought that a last-second basket would give way to a magical summer. The women’s 3×3 basketball team qualified for the Paris Games with an incredible bingo by Gracia Alonso de Armiño in the final moment of the pre-Olympic match against Canada and that surge of energy to tie up the ticket for the debut was prolonged first with a historic silver medal in the French capital and just 19 days later with the gold at the European Championship held in Vienna. Suddenly, Vega Gimeno, Sandra Ygueravide, Juana Camilión and Gracia Alonso de Armiño had not only climbed onto the podium in two major international events, but had also discovered in Spain an attractive and spectacular discipline that continues to gain fans and stimulates new projects: the Spanish Basketball Federation is working on the idea of promoting national 3×3 competitions, such as a league and cup tournaments, for the 2025-26 season.
“It has been a dream summer,” explained Vega Gimeno yesterday in Madrid after returning from the Women’s Series, a kind of unofficial World Cup that took place this past weekend in the Chinese city of Hangzhou. The Spanish team had won four of the five previous tournaments (in Poitiers, Bordeaux, Pristina and Baku, sixth in Fribourg), although this time they ran aground before the quarterfinals. “We have been fighting for many years, taking steps little by little but very solidly. We have laid a first stone for the future of 3×3, we have given it the push that was necessary and we will continue to fight for the visibility that we need. Long live 3×3 because this has only just begun,” added Gimeno, one of the veterans of this discipline along with Sandra Ygueravide.
Just 15 years ago, 3×3 basketball was nothing more than a street sport, where its roots are rooted. Today, that seed has grown and the women’s team has equalled the Olympic record for Spanish basketball in Paris, the men’s silver medals in 1984, 2008 and 2012 in the traditional 5×5. 3×3 debuted at the Tokyo Games (without spectators in the stands) and the Spanish women’s team debuted in Paris (the men did not qualify) after that basket with their backs to the basket. The great success came this summer when they defeated the United States in the semi-finals in overtime (18-16) hours before losing the final against Germany by just one point (17-16).
Spain is hooked on a basketball game played on a half court, with a single basket, three against three, whoever scores the most points in 10 minutes, or whoever reaches 21 first wins. The game is played in 12-second possessions and free throws after the sixth foul. Successful attempts from behind the three-point line are worth two points, and one inside. No coach intervenes during time-outs (the coach since 2011 is Ana Junyer), but rather the players ask for them and decide the strategy. If there is overtime, the team with a two-point advantage wins. These are the pillars of a sport that has been evolving, and with it, changing its rules, to become a dizzying discipline, without a second of respite and full of changes in dynamics.
“We wanted people to start watching us, to get hooked on what has been catching us for a long time, so that this doesn’t stop at just an Olympic silver or a European gold. It’s about experiencing it and it gets you hooked,” explains Sandra Ygueravide. The track at the Place de la Concorde in Paris, the venue for Olympic street sports, sold out for the seven days of competition: 4,000 spectators per match for a total of 72,000 fans. “They have been working for this specialty for many years. This summer, in addition to the sporting milestone, they have given visibility to this sport that many did not know about and that is here to stay,” adds Elisa Aguilar, president of the federation.
A magical summer is coming to an end and the four players are returning to their old ways. Vega Gimeno is retiring from 5×5 basketball at the age of 33 after a final season at Zaragoza, and wants to continue competing in the summers in 3×3; Ygueravide, 39 years old, will join Girona’s pre-season; and Alonso (31 years old) and Camilión (25) will join Estudiantes’. The women’s league begins on October 4.
“I would definitely change 5×5 basketball for 3×3 if I could dedicate myself to this,” says Gracia Alonso about this new discipline that has had a magical August. The CAR in Madrid already has a court for training and training camps, and the Federation is working on the idea of new competitions that will fuel future successes.
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