Basketball - Team Belgium

Nickname
Belgian Cats

General
The Belgian women's basketball team will be making their Olympic debut at the 2020 Games. Their journey to Tokyo began with a fifth-place finish at EuroBasket in 2019. This earned them a place at the 2020 Olympic Qualifying Tournament held on home soil in Ostend, where they finished second in their group behind Canada, with wins against Japan and Sweden enough to secure their first Olympic berth.

The Belgian Cats competed at their first World Cup [formerly the world championship] in 2018, where they posted wins over Puerto Rico and hosts Spain in the group phase alongside a two-point loss to Japan. They then overcame France 86-65 in the quarterfinals before losing to eventual champions the United States of America 93-77 in the semifinals. In the bronze medal match they were unable to repeat their group phase win over Spain, losing 67-60 to finish fourth.

At continental level Belgium competed at 13 editions of EuroBasket between 1950 and 2021. Their best result has been third, which they managed in 2017, and again four years later. At the 2021 edition they were defeated in a thrilling semifinal 74-73 by eventual champions Serbia, before beating Belarus 77-69 in the third-place match.