The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup, also known as the Basketball World Cup for Women or simply the FIBA Women's World Cup, is an international basketball tournament for women's national teams held quadrennially. It was created by the International Basketball Federation (FIBA). Its inaugural game was in 1953 in Chile, three years after the first men's World Championship. For most of its early history, it was not held in the same year as the men's championship, and was not granted a consistent quadrennial cycle until 1967. After the 1983 event, FIBA changed the scheduling so that the women's tournament would be held in even-numbered non-Olympic years, a change that had come to the men's tournament in 1970.
Formerly known as the FIBA World Championship for Women, the name changed shortly after its 2014 edition. From 1986 through 2014, the tournament was held in the same year as the men's FIBA Basketball World Cup, though in different countries. After the 2014 editions of both championships, the men's event was rescheduled on a new four-year cycle (the latest in 2019) to avoid conflict with the men's FIFA World Cup, but the Women's World Cup remains on the same four-year cycle, with editions held in the same years as the men's FIFA World Cup and the finals tournament played a few months after it. The 2022 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup was held in Sydney, Australia. The 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup will be held in Berlin, Germany.
History
Only four nations have won titles in the history of the Women's World Cup. The first tournament was held in 1953 in Chile, with the participation of ten national teams. Despite losing to Brazil in the final round, the United States won the inaugural title. The next tournament which was held in 1957 in Brazil, marked the beginning of the long-time rivalry between the US team and Soviet team, who debuted at the World Championship. The first official match between these teams was played on the last day of the tournament, it was also the decisive match of the championship. Soviet players led after the first half (27–24), but in the second half the Americans managed to achieve victory (51–48) and won their second World title.
The third World Championship was held in 1959 in Moscow, Soviet Union. Due to international political tensions, caused by the Cold War, the United States and its allies didn't participate at this tournament, thus only eight Eastern Bloc countries were able to play at the championship. In the absence of the US team, the Soviet team won their maiden World title while Bulgaria took silver medals and Czechoslovakia finished third. But at the next World Championship, which was held in 1964 in Peru, all these Eastern European teams also occupied whole podium – Soviet Union won their second title in a row, Czechoslovakia won silver medals, Bulgaria took bronze while United States finished only at fourth place. This tournament marked the beginning of the era of dominance of the Soviet Union in world women's basketball, which lasted for next two decades. Under leadership of head coach Lidiya Alekseyeva, Soviet team won three next World Championships held in 1967 (Czechoslovakia), 1971 (Brazil) and 1975 (Colombia). The vast majority of medals at these tournaments were won by Eastern European and East Asian teams while United States even failed to qualify into final round. In general, from 1959 to 1975 Soviet team won record five titles in a row by winning all their 40 matches with margin of 10 points and more. Therefore, it was not surprising when the Soviet Union won the inaugural women's Olympic tournament which was held in 1976 in Montreal, Canada (by winning all five matches). Despite losing to the Japan and Soviet Union, the United States managed to finish second and capture silver medals while Bulgaria took Olympic bronze.