Women are representing the Marshall Islands at the premier global basketball event happening in China since last Saturday: The FIBA Basketball World Cup, where 32 of the best teams in the world are competing for bragging rights and a birth at the Olympic Games in Japan in 2020.
Marshall Islands Basketball Federation (MIBF) President Candice Guavis and Secretary General Deborah Shoniber are at the multi-city event, which includes the XXI FIBA World Congress in Beijing. MIBF has a seat at the every-four-year Congress along with representatives of 154 other national basketball federations present in Beijing for the Congress.
“Highlights included meeting the Micronesia and Oceania representatives and FIBA Board, such an awesome and tremendous team,” said Guavis in a social media post. She and Shoniber have been networking “with new-found colleagues from the Caribbean, Asia, Africa and Europe; meeting famous international basketball stars and legends; watching the World Cup Games and most importantly how to be a better leader in the national development of basketball.”
Guavis said the three priority strategic objectives for the new cycle of 2019-2023 were presented to the Congress: Empower National Federations, Women in Basketball, and Enlarge the FIBA Family.
Guavis said what stood out for her was learning about the International Wheelchair Basketball Federation and the Deaf International Basketball Federation. “The RMI has a disability act in place, it’s time we collaborate and make basketball for everyone,” she said. “As the Education motto goes, ‘No child left behind.’”
Read more about this in the September 6, 2019 edition of the Marshall Islands Journal.