Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff, PhD

53 years ago, before there was Sino-American ping-pong diplomacy, there was French-Chinese basketball diplomacy.

This month, the People’s Republic of China, embroiled in a seemingly endless trade war with the United States and endeavoring to quash pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong, is nevertheless also performing one of the ultimate acts of basketball diplomacy. China is hosting the FIBA World Cup, a quadrennial, international basketball tournament and qualifier for the summer Olympics. While hoops fans in the United States might glaze over thinking about the prospect of bizarro September basketball (...

Marine Johannès, one of the New York Liberty’s newest rookies, is still getting her bearings. In many ways, this summer is a masterclass in adaptability.
The 24-year old, dubbed “the French Steph Curry” by the press back home, touched down in New York last month after a year of basketball that has taken her from the French championship and EuroLeague competition to the EuroBasket tournament to the WNBA. Through it all, she knew this was the goal.

When the 2019 World Cup’s final matches kicked off this week, the pulse of the tournament shifted to Lyon—a city once known as the silk capital of the world.
Earlier matches were held in cities that boast a strong pedigree for the women’s game, including Reims, which was the crucible of its mid-1960s resurgence, and Montpellier, which was where ex-president Louis Nicollin created the country’s first professional women’s team in 2001. But no other place has become as synonymous with world-clas...

France and the United States will square off in the World Cup quarterfinal today. The oddsmakers have the United States as a narrow favorite, but regardless of who wins the match, France has already won the tournament.

By age 29, Louisa Necib-Cadamuro had crafted a sparkling career. She was a mainstay on the French national team and accumulated several French Division 1 and Champions League titles with dominant professional side Olympique Lyonnais féminin. She was one of the best players on the planet; cunning, skillful, and equipped with a wicked long-range shot. Had everything gone like most careers like her’s, she’d likely have been playing a role on the French team looking to make a run in the knockout ...

France’s Delphine Cascarino is recognized for her speedy wing play, the fact that she is the twin sister of fellow footballer Estelle and her love for her hometown club, Lyon. It is also notable, but less widely known, that she is one of the first members of France’s women’s team, Les Bleues, to pass through the country’s famed National Institute of Sport, Expertise and Performance (INSEP), where many of the country’s Olympians train but also where elite teenage athletes in most sports discip...

In the end, Argentina celebrated while Japan somberly thanked their fans. The scoreboard read 0-0 at full time, but the Albicelestes’ draw against 2011 World Cup champions Japan was much more than the result indicated. The team won their first ever point at the World Cup after a 12-year hiatus, a victory in spirit if not on the pitch.

French influences in U.S. soccer scene

Changing weather patterns are reconfiguring ski racing in gritty, noticeable ways, drawing stark contrasts to how things were a decade ago. From shrinking glaciers and inadequate snow cover to tempestuous storms and too much of the white stuff, racers on the World Cup circuit are having to adapt in myriad ways.

One hundred years ago in mid-November, the guns went silent as an armistice ended four years of grueling, total warfare. It was a cruel conflict that devastated Europe, and in the wake of the destruction, modern society came into being. Looking back, the First World War was a watershed that unleashed a series of forces that continue to shape today’s world, including popular entertainment and the global soccer scene.

Let’s make a little wager: when you think of a superpower and sports, you probably think of the epic Cold War conflicts between the United States and the Soviet Union immortalized in popular culture by “Rocky IV,” the controversial 1972 Olympic gold medal US-USSR basketball final, or the “Miracle on Ice” at the 1980 Lake Placid Games.

But what about the less noticeable, but still important relationship between sports and diplomacy?

Sold-out crowds, electrifying contests and the announcement of Kobe Bryant as the competition's Global Ambassador have stoked excitement about FIBA Basketball World Cup qualification around the globe. Six countries have already clinched berths for next summer’s tournament in China. It’s an amazing testament to the game’s resonance across languages and cultures, and just one illustration of how far basketball has come in a relatively short period of time.

The actions spearheaded by U.S. diplomats—and American citizens—in France during 1914 significantly strengthened Franco-American relations in unique, unparalleled ways. This digital timeline outlines the three main storylines, while also providing full access to digitized documents describing what daily life was like on-the-ground for those involved.

Basketball is not what comes to mind when you think of France. But as the home of the world’s oldest basketball court and the biggest basketball tournament in the world, France boasts a unique interaction of basketball history, art, and street culture.

In this episode of THE WAY WE BALL, we trace the country’s rich legacy within the sport and how it’s getting this generation’s best European basketball players, like Sekou Doumbouya, to the NBA. Narrated by A$AP Twelvyy. Look out for Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff