Les Bleues of 1953 have no heirs yet. 69 years after the last semi-final of a French women’s team in a world basketball championship, Jean-Aimé Toupane’s players failed in the quarter-finals on Thursday, beaten (85-71) by China, favorite of the confrontation. The French, tied on points with the Asians after a committed and spectacular first quarter (25-25) broke down in the second act, returning to the locker room with a disbursement of eleven points.
Les Bleues then tried to revolt and even came back to a single point behind China during the third quarter (57-56), carried by their leader Marine Fauthoux and their winger Gabby Williams. Alas, the Chinese accelerated again to get back to safety before finishing the job in a final quarter where the French could never really hope to overthrow them to open the way to a half against the winner of the quarter between Australia and Belgium.
The France team remained on two podiums in its last two competitions, with a silver medal at the Euro and then a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics, both last year. Les Bleues, whose major objective remains the 2024 Olympics in Paris, were deprived of two key players through injury: interior Sandrine Gruda, as well as rear Marine Johannès.