The sport of 3x3 basketball is coming to Bochum and with the additional inclusion of 3x3 wheelchair basketball, the FISU Games will feature Para Sport on the programme for the first time in its history.
“It’s a great idea and I think it will be a great success,” Kosta Iliev, the chair of the International Technical Committee for the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 basketball competition, said during a recent inspection visit to the region.
“What is unique here is that for the first time we have basketball and 3x3 basketball, plus 3x3 wheelchair basketball. This is something new, it’s very innovative, and we are very excited and happy to see this here.
Iliev was instrumental in the development of 3x3 basketball
“It’s especially great that we have 3x3 wheelchair, this new discipline which the international wheelchair (basketball) federation wants to bring to the Paralympic Games. So the FISU Games could be one of the test events for this goal.”
Iliev has been involved with the development of 3x3 from its inception 14 years ago, and he was instrumental in bringing the sport onto the global stage at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
“In the beginning I was the sports director of 3x3, so I’m very closely linked to the development of the sport, and I really love it,” the 62-year-old said.
© FISU
“Nobody could believe even five or six years ago that this will be an Olympic sport. This discipline is very popular among the young people in universities so it’s the right choice of the Organising Committee to put this forward as an optional sport for these FISU Games.”
So what does Iliev, himself a former Bulgarian National team player in full court basketball, think makes the newer format so exciting?
“It’s the freedom,” he said. “In 3x3 basketball there are no coaches leading the game, so kids are becoming more creative, and they are free of plans and restrictions. It’s a very fast game and there is plenty of music. Plus it’s held outdoors, usually in the most attractive urban places in the cities.”
Jahrhunderthalle Bochum as a worthy setting for 3x3 basketball
For the Rhine-Ruhr 2025 FISU World University Games, the Organising Committee have selected the Jahrhunderthalle in Bochum as the venue. Designed for a Düsseldorf trade fair, rebuilt in Bochum as a steam power station, and now repurposed as a cultural events space, there can hardly be a more appropriate venue for the world’s fastest growing urban sport.
“We are looking forward to having a really great event here, we’re really excited,” Iliev said. “We know more or less what to expect. We know there are good facilities, now we just have to work on the details.”
Die Bochumer Jahrhunderthalle. © Frank Rogner