Building Women’s (American) Flag Football

By Dr. Russ Crawford

Team France at the 2025 IFAF European Continental Championship, held in Choisy-le-Roi, France. Photo: Constance Milojevic.

Flag football is building towards inclusion at the 2028 Los Angeles Games after being a part of the World Games in Birmingham, Alabama in 2022 and Chengdu, China in 2025.

In Fall 2025, the International Federation of American Football (IFAF) held their continental championships series to winnow down the number of teams worldwide to the twelve top competitors who will compete in IFAF's World Flag Football Championship in Düsseldorf, Germany, in 2026.

The connection between American flag football and French athletes was on display as the Women’s Team France took fourth place in the September 2025 IFAF European Continental Championship. Excitement around the September 25-27, 2025 tournament was a good indication of the growth of women’s flag football.

French Women Placed Fourth In American Flag Football

Team France got off to a quick start on the first day of competition of the IFAF European Women’s Flag Football Championship in Choisy-le-Roi, France. The home team easily handled Sweden, 40-13, and defeated Norway, 60-6.

Team France center Lucie Vinot (18). Photo: Constance Milojevic

On the second day of competition, France outpaced Italy, 48-6, and Poland, 56-12. In that day’s closest match, the French Women’s National Team got revenge against the Spanish, who defeated them 28-22 in the Round of 16 at the 2024 World Championships; at the Euros, France overcame Spain by 11 points, 33-22.

The French women had the backing of large homefield crowds at the Parc Interdépartmental de Choisy Paris-Val-de-Marne, who came equipped with Les Tricolores, drums, and a great deal of enthusiasm.

The team tallied up a clean win sheet across their first five games, then faced off against Great Britain for the championship title. The rivalry between the two countries dates back to at least 1066, when William the Conqueror and his Normans from France conquered England, and every international sports competition writes yet another chapter into this thousand-year-old saga.

Title hopes were dashed, however, as Team France fell six points short, losing to their cross-Channel rivals, 21-27. With their dreams diminished, the French women then lost another heartbreaker in a rematch with the Spaniards, who took the bronze medal after a tough 41-40 game.

But podium finishes don’t tell the whole story. France had an outstanding tournament, just seven points removed from an undefeated streak, and punched above their weight. In IFAF’s 2024 rankings, France placed 6th in Europe, so their fourth-place tournament finish perhaps exceeded the expectations of the rankers, if not the team itself.

In her post-game interview, center Lucie Vinot was understandably disappointed, but focused on the future.

“I haven’t enough words to describe how we feel as a team. We are so proud of our work. We are so grateful for the support of the public; it was incredible. It was a tough game, both last ones. We can just stay on the positive things. We want to go to the World Championships, because we worked a lot this year. We have so much support from the federation (Fédération Française de Football Américain), with the team, with the coaching staff. So now we are qualified for the World Championship next year, and it was the first goal, so now it will be the next goal for the next year.”

IFAF President Pierre Trochet, who in his younger days played tackle football for the Sabres de Châteauxroux, was very pleased with the championships, which were the third continental championships that IFAF held in the leadup to the 2026 World Championships. “It was spectacular!” He told IFAF’s Catherine Inkster in an interview at the close of games

“I think we have had the best European Championship we have ever had, in terms of toughness of games and competitiveness. We had a packed stadium at the end, great highlights, and two great champions.”

Team France center Lucie Vinot (18). Photo: Constance Milojevic

In June 2025, IFAFh held their first African continental championship, in which Nigeria qualified for Düsseldorf. Following that, Mexico defeated Canada, and the United States beat host team Panama to qualify, along with 5th place Brazil, for the worlds. The combined Asia-Oceania championships were held in Ningbo, China starting on Friday October 24.

With another year under their flag belts, it will be interesting to see how Team France fares against the expanded field. The French placed second in the first IFAF Women’s World Flag Football Championships in 2002. They won it all in 2006, and placed third in 2008. Their fourth-place finish in the 2025 Euros follows a championship title in 2007, two second place finishes in 2013 and 2015, and two fourth places in 2023 and this year.

Watch the game replays via IFAF TV.

Russ Crawford is a professor of History at Ohio Northern University. He has written two books on football history. The University of Nebraska Press published his Le Football: A History of American Football in France in 2016 and his Women’s American Football: Breaking Barriers On and Off the Field in 2022.

From Wembanyama to the World Stage: French Basketball and the New Era of Trans-Atlantic Sports Diplomacy

By Tianchi Ma

In October 2023, all eyes were on the San Antonio Spurs as its number one pick, and the NBA’s newest phenomenon, 7-foot-4 Frenchman, Victor Wembanyama illustrated in figure one below made his professional debut.

Screenshot from “Victor Wembanyama Best NBA Dunks” video by Golden Hoops via YouTube.

Dubbed as the future face of the NBA, a unicorn, and a generational talent, Wembanyama is not just another international star; he is the symbol of the emerging French players who are reshaping the NBA (Sudre, 2024). His presence and overall success in the league is evidence of the culmination of decades of athletic, cultural, and diplomatic collaboration between France and the United States in expanding the global reach of basketball, and in particular, increasing the NBA’s fan base (Krasnoff, 2023). 

French basketball continues to cement its place within the NBA’s global structure with five players in the mix for the 2025 NBA Draft. They are part of the longer trend that since the first Frenchman was drafted in 1997 reveals the deeper stories in regards to the media, scouting, training, and sports diplomacy (Rofe, 2018). There has been an increase in the impact of French players in the NBA as illustrated with this highlight that was uploaded on YouTube in 2024 (watch at the right).

This is not simply about talent alone, it is a story of globalization, strategic investment, and also cultural exchange. By conducting an in-depth examination of the journey from Tony Parker to Victor Wembanyama, this backgrounder explores the way that basketball has become a dynamic vehicle for the Franco-American connection through player development, media spectacle, and also mutual influence.

A Historical Pipeline: From Parker to Present

Institutional investment and strategic foundations are the pillars of the rise of French basketball in the NBA. In the book, Basketball Empire: France and the Making of a Global NBA and WNBA, Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff highlights the way that France has cultivated its basketball reputation through public support, elite academies, and long-term vision of international competitiveness (Krasnoff, 2023). The establishment of the Institut National du Sport, de l’Expertise et de la Performance (INSEP) in 1975 was critical. Located in easternmost Paris, INSEP today is the hub in terms of producing young elite French athletes, including notable NBA stars, who coincidentally played in the San Antonio Spurs as teammates Tony Parker and Boris Diaw (Sudre et al., 2019).

Homage to Tony Parker on a basketball court in Levallois, France. Photo: Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff.

Tony Parker’s success with the San Antonio Spurs in the early 2000s was more than a personal achievement. It validated the French development model on a global stage. Parker was both a product of the French system and also a cultural ambassador, and he brought the European court intelligence and international flair into the American basketball ethos (Sudre, 2024). In particular, he led the San Antonio Spurs to win four NBA championships as the starting point guard and floor general; winning the Finals most valuable player (MVP) award opened the floodgates for greater trust in international scouting, and in particular, in France. Other notable French players like Nicolas Batum, Rudy Gobert, and Evan Fournier soon emerged as outstanding NBA players. Gobert has to date won four Defensive Player of the Year awards and currently and his team, the Minnesota Timberwolves, contested the 2025 NBA playoffs. Players like Gobert, Batum, Fournier and others have built on the foundations laid by the Parker generation and expanded the narrative that France is no longer a basketball outlier, but a legitimate global power.

Training and Scouting in the Age of Globalization

INSEP: the land of champions, where Tony Parker and Boris Diaw completed their schooling. Photo: Lindsay Sarah Krasnoff.

The increased success of the French players in the NBA is not accidental. It is a by-product of globalized training systems and improved Trans-Atlantic scouting. In addition to that, INSEP and similar academies offer rigorous, science-based training for interested athletes from a young age (Bartee, 2024). It is important to add that talented athletes are scouted by these academies when they are 12 or 13 years, and placed in elite programs, which combine education with full-time basketball development. These systems emphasize basketball fundamentals, versatility, and also teamwork–the qualities highly sought after by the NBA scouts.

Wembanyama is the epitome of this system. He began his training at Nanterre 92, before proceeding to ASVEL, Parker’s club. While in these programs, it was clear from an early age that Wembanyama had a rare blend of coordination, intelligence, and perimeter skills, which drew scouts from around the world. His games were livestreamed internationally, his workouts went viral, and NBA team front offices invested heavily in tracking his progress (Carin et al., 2021). It is also worth noting that the NBA itself is an active player, when it comes to fostering globalization. It uses different initiatives like Basketball Without Borders, and preseason games overseas to increase the popularity of the game outside of North America (Faye, 2023). In France, the NBA has not just recruited French talent, but it has also invested in the country’s basketball ecosystem. The NBA Paris Game, which was first played in 2020, and then revived in 2023, draws massive local interest and media coverage, which has signaled the sport’s commercial and diplomatic potential.

Sports Media and Franco-American Cultural Exchange

The rise of the French NBA players has contributed to significant sports media evolution within the USA as it has intensified its Trans-Atlantic cultural exchange. A majority of the French players are entering the NBA as global brands. Their careers have been amplified using YouTube highlights of their best plays in different leagues (French-American Foundation, 2022). Other platforms that are currently being used are Instagram storytelling, and multilingual content from other platforms like ESPN. For Wembanyama, his rise to the global stage was much about the narrative behind him, as it was about talent. ESPN ran feature-length stories about him, and there were calls that he was an even more high-prospect rookie than the current face of the league, Lebron James. All his interviews were translated, subtitled, and even shared across continents for basketball fans to know him better. It is worth noting that he appeared on American late-night television even before he played a single minute in the NBA (Pugmire & Nouvian, 2024).

“Such media exposure creates a feedback loop where French culture is increasingly consumed by American audiences through its athletes.”

— Tianchi Ma

Wembanyama’s embrace of French fashion, language, and humor makes him a cultural export. Similarly, French fans engage deeply with American basketball through NBA League Pass, fan pages, and social media discourse. The mutual engagement forms a new kind of sports diplomacy, one where culture is shared not through official embassies, but through crossover dribbles and slam dunks.

Recent Developments and the Road Ahead

There is a new generation of French players who have entered the NBA, and as such are reinforcing the themes laid out in Basketball Empire. Other than Wembanyama, there is his former San Antonio teammate Sidy Cissoko (who now plays for Portland), Washington Wizard’s Bilal Coulibaly and Alexandre Sarr, Atlanta Hawks’ Zaccharie Risacher, and Charlotte Hornets’ Tidjane Salaun. It seems like with each NBA draft, the NBA is increasing its engagement with France, and vice versa (Pugmire & Nouvian, 2024). During the 2024 Paris Olympics, France proved that they were a major basketball force. The team, which was composed of Wembanyama, Batum, Fournier, Gobert, and Guerschon Yabusele, played exceptionally and Les Bleus took Team USA to the wire in the gold medal match, a narrow loss in the game’s last three minutes. 

There is also growing dialogue about identity and representation (Pugmire & Nouvian, 2024). Many French NBA players are of African cultural heritage, highlighting the multicultural fabric of modern France. Their visibility challenges outdated notions of Frenchness and contributes to ongoing discussions about race, citizenship, and global belonging. The NBA's willingness to embrace these stories strengthens its global brand and highlights sport’s potential to reshape cultural narratives.

Conclusion

The ascent of French basketball players in the NBA is more than a sports story—it’s a mirror of globalization, a model of transnational training, and a subtle form of diplomacy. With Wembanyama leading the charge, the NBA’s French connection is entering a new era, one defined by media spectacle, elite preparation, and cultural synergy. As both nations continue to invest in the exchange of talent and ideas, basketball stands as a powerful symbol of Franco-American partnership in the 21st century.

References

Bartee, H. (2024, December 3). “The globalization of professional basketball: Context and competition matters in the NBA, WNBA, and Olympics.” The Sport Journal. https://thesportjournal.org/article/the-globalization-of-professional-basketball-context-and-competition-matters-in-the-nba-wnba-and-olympics/

Carin, Y., Desquennes, C., Jaworski, L., & Andreff, W. (2021). “French men's professional basketball under the economic shock of the COVID-19.” Sport, Business and Management: An International Journal, 12(4), 479-495. https://doi.org/10.1108/sbm-05-2021-0057

Faye, O. (2023, August 5). “How French basketball caught on to NBA-style sports business.” Le Monde.fr. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/m-le-mag/article/2023/08/05/how-french-basketball-caught-on-to-nba-style-sports-business_6081478_117.html

French-American Foundation. (2022, March 2). “#FranceAndUS Sports Diplomacy: Stronger Transatlantic Relations Hiding in Plain Sight.” https://frenchamerican.org/event/franceandus-sports-diplomacy-stronger-transatlantic-relations-hiding-in-plain-sight/

Krasnoff, L. S. (2023). Basketball empire: France and the making of a global NBA and WNBA. Bloomsbury..

Pugmire, J., & Nouvian, T. (2024, June 24). “Made in France: How French basketball turned so many young talents into NBA players.” AP News. https://apnews.com/article/nba-draft-2024-french-basketball-paris-olympics-5340a58694850c2ec6772efc3c377a7d

Rofe, J. S. (Ed.). (2018). Sport and diplomacy: Games within games. Manchester University Press.

Sudre, D. (2024). “The basketball show in the north of France: A hybrid cultural creation between the globalized culture of the NBA and the local Carnival culture.” Global Culture and Sport Series, 273-292. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-031-41656-9_13

Sudre, D., Joncheray, H., & Lech, A. (2019). “‘Let go of your ball, this is not the NBA!’: The influence of hip-hop ball on institutional basketball around Paris (France): Cultural antagonisms and difficult cohabitation.” Journal of Sport and Social Issues, 43(3), 147-166. https://doi.org/10.1177/0193723519832464

About the Author

Tianchi Ma is a graduate student at New York University’s Tisch Institute for Global Sport.