The FIBA Foundation has released a new oral history report documenting more than seven decades of women’s basketball, as part of a broader initiative to preserve the sport’s international heritage.
Titled Through Their Eyes: Stories of Women Who Shaped Basketball, the report was unveiled at the FIBA Women in Basketball Forum in Berlin. It traces the development of the women’s game from the inaugural FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup in 1953 through to the modern era, using the first-hand experiences of figures who helped shape the sport across generations and continents.
The publication features in-depth interviews with 12 basketball pioneers, including nine members of the FIBA Hall of Fame. The contributors represent a broad range of basketball communities, with figures from Australia, the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia.
Among those featured are Australian coach Tom Maher, US basketball figures Carol Callan and Teresa Edwards, European pioneers Jacky Chazalon, Claudine Clot-Ducommun, Natália Hejková and Maria Planas, as well as the late Uljana Semjonova. The report also includes contributions from Mame Maty Mbengue, Shin-Ja Park, Laura Pina and Maria Silva.
Building a digital archive for women’s basketball
The oral history report forms part of a wider FIBA Foundation project focused on preserving and presenting the history of women’s basketball through different storytelling formats.
The initiative also includes the graphic novel La Valise d’Éliane, the documentary The World on Our Shoulders and a public exhibition dedicated to the development of the women’s game.
FIBA Foundation head Theren Bullock Jr. said the project is designed to preserve the experiences of the sport’s influential figures while making their stories accessible to future generations.
The Foundation will also expand its digital Women in Basketball hub in the coming months, with plans to publish open archive materials, exclusive interviews and research articles.
The initiative positions historical preservation as an increasingly important part of the growth of women’s basketball, connecting the sport’s international past with its expanding contemporary ecosystem.