Team USA’s fifth straight title, and their twelfth overall.
The FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is the world championship of women’s basketball and the sport’s biggest event outside the Olympics, held every four years. Berlin 2026 was the 20th edition.
16 national teams played 36 games over ten days, September 4–13. The teams were divided into four groups, and in the first round every team played the other three in its group. Winning the group meant a place straight in the quarter-finals; second or third meant an extra knockout game to get there.
The United States won it, beating France 97–79 in the final for their twelfth title and their fifth in a row. That equals the longest run in the tournament’s history — the Soviet Union won five in a row between 1959 and 1975. Spain beat Germany 81–58 for the bronze. Every team’s full record is on its own page — see Teams.
Breanna Stewart was named MVP, the first player to win it twice (2018, 2026). The five players named tournament all-stars were Breanna Stewart (USA), Jackie Young (USA), Gabby Williams (France), Iyana Martín (Spain) and Leonie Fiebich (Germany). Martín was the only member of the all-star five not playing in the WNBA, but she was Portland’s 1st round draft pick in 2026 and is nearly certain to join the Fire next season. 50 current WNBA players were in this field including all 12 on the US roster, 8 who played for France, 7 for Australia and 4 each for Belgium and host country, Germany, who finished 4th in the tournament.
| Difference | What changes |
|---|---|
| Five fouls, not six | Players foul out a full personal earlier, so foul rates and minutes lost to foul trouble are not like-for-like with WNBA numbers. |
| No defensive three seconds | A defender may park in the lane. Legal zone defense, and fewer clean rim attempts than the WNBA game trains you to expect. |
| The ball may be played off the rim | Once it touches the ring it is live. Plays that would be goaltending in the WNBA are legal here. |
| Possession arrow | After the opening tip there is not another jump ball all tournament. Held balls alternate. |
| Timeouts | Coach-only, dead-ball-only, one minute, and no mandatory TV timeouts. A trapped ballhandler has no bailout. |
| Court size and the three-point line | FIBA’s court is 3.9% smaller than the WNBA’s. The three-point arc is identical at the top, 6.75 m, but in the corners FIBA’s line sits closer to the basket — 6.60 m against 6.71 m, about four inches. That gap stems from FIBA’s narrower court, which means the sideline cuts into the arc sooner. |