🏀0️⃣0️⃣9️⃣ Diandra Tchatchouang
Diandra Tchatchouang. Photo: Bellenger/IS/FFBB.
Meet Diandra Tchatchouang, the Olympic-medal winning activist whose time playing NCAA basketball influenced her on-court game and off-court work back home.
Born June 14, 1991, Tchatchouang grew up in La Courneuve just north of Paris and started playing basketball at age 8. Alongside her sister, she took up the free-wheeling “playground basketball,” a street-style game popularized in the 1980s and 1990s by French kids who sought to imitate the U.S. stars they saw in NBA television broadcasts. But she also played with an organized team in her hometown. What began as a way to have fun and spend time with friends evolved into a passion for the game itself. Tchatchouang attended INSEP, the country’s highly selective sports school and elite basketball academy, from 2005 until 2009. After passing her baccalaureate exam, she departed for the University of Maryland to play NCAA Division 1 basketball while continuing her studies.
Diandra’s Story
Eighteen-year-old Tchatchouang arrived on campus in College Park, Maryland in Fall 2009 and instantly confronted U.S.-style collegiate basketball and its culture. It was vastly different than being a student-athlete at INSEP, where as a teenager she lived, studied, and trained on campus in the Bois de Vincennes along Paris’ eastern flanks.
For starters, the basketball stadiums were much bigger — able to seat some 18,000 fans, whereas the largest indoor basketball arena in France, Paris’ Bercy Arena, maxed out at a few thousand less. “It was as if every day, two times a week, you trained and played at Bercy,” she recalled. “There were so many people at games.”
Basketball was also much more visible. NCAA games were broadcast on ESPN, easily penetrating public discourse, something unheard of back home where basketball had to fight (and still does) for the media spotlight. The women’s game in the United States also benefited from Title IX, the U.S. legislation whose sports provisions dictate equal access and resources for girls to play sports in federally-funded education institutions. “That’s super important as it permits girls a level comparable to boys,” Tchatchouang said. “That’s a huge difference from France, and Europe in general.”
The experience was informative and influential in numerous ways. On-court, Tchatchouang cited leadership as one of the key skills she developed that helped improve her game.
“I learned that, regardless of your place on the team, you have something to give, whether it’s on the court or off of the terrain.”
But her studies and absorbing the history of U.S. sports and its culture of athlete activism was transformative. “For me, my time in the United States really allowed me to have this notion of ‘giving back,’” Tchatchouang noted, citing earlier generations of athletes who used their platforms to give back to communities, like Muhammad Ali. “It allowed me to realize that doing so was legitimate, that it was normal, and that it was necessary.”
Tchatchouang also began to think of her role as more than merely being an athlete. Historically in France, sportspeople were confined to the narrow role of performing on the court. But Tchatchouang took away from her U.S. experience that athletes can be about much more than just sports performances.
Still, her freshman year at Maryland was highly performative as Tchatchouang entered the record books. She started all 34 games that season, averaged 11.5 points per game (392 for the season), notched up 183 rebounds and 44 blocks, and was named to the ACC All-Academic team for her scholarly successes, demonstrating leadership in numerous ways. Although selected in 20th place by the San Antonio Silver Stars in the 2013 WNBA Draft, Tchatchouang has played her professional career in France’s Ligue Féminin de Basket (LFB), putting into practice leadership and communication skills honed in the United States.
Diandra Tchatchouang playing for Les Bleues at EuroBasket 2021. Photo: Bellenger/IS/FFBB.
The Sports Diplomacy Connection
Tchatchouang engaged in informal sports diplomacy during her NCAA career, but also in formal sports diplomacy as a member of the French women’s national basketball team, Les Bleues.
She first suited up en bleu on June 2, 2012 for a friendly against Poland (France won, 74-66), and has since scored a series of medals, including several EuroBasket silvers, and most recently, bronze at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games.
All the while, Tchatchouang continues to communicate, represent, and negotiate perceptions about who is French and what French athletes can do. She’s the founder of StudyHall93, an association that helps kids who are part of sports clubs in La Courneuve stay on-track with their academic studies, Take Your Shot, a day dedicated to encouraging young girls in La Courneuve to try basketball, and is producer and host of the “Super Humains” podcast. She also serves on the Paris2024 Athlete’s Commission.
“I try to pass messages,” she said of her numerous efforts, as well as her work as an advocate for different issues.
“When you take a stance on a social issue, on sport, you will always hear someone tell you ‘you are just a basketball player, stay with basketball.’ I try to talk about the fights that exist as a sportswoman, as a female athlete.”
Mapping the Connection
From La Courneuve, France to College Park, Maryland
Further Reading
[F] Diandra Tchatchouang, interview with the author, September 26, 2021
[E] “It’s More than a Sport—Every Day We Are Fighting For Our Rights To Be Equal,” FT.com, July 30, 2021
[F] “Diandra Tchatchouang: son double projet,” Paris2024
[F] “Ca va, Diandra Tchatchouang?” French Basketball Federation
[F] Diandra Tchatchouang, guest editor, More Than Ballers REVERSE No6, March 2021.
How to Cite This Entry
Krasnoff, Lindsay Sarah. “Voices: Diandra Tchatchouang,” FranceAndUS, https://www.franceussports.com/voices/009-diandra-tchatchouang. (date of consultation).