Barcelona 29 August 1992, Games of the XXV Olympiad. Men's basketball: Michael JORDAN of the United States shoots during the match United States - Germany. Credit: Getty Images/POWELL Mike

For 36 years after basketball entered the Olympic Games as a full medal sport for men, the question was not who would win, but who would finish second. The United States owned the game, and not just because it was invented there.

The Soviet Union took home the gold when they toppled the US team in a controversial 1972 game. After another semi-final victory for the Soviets in 1988, the sport opened to professionals. Once again, the question became who would finish second. In Barcelona in 1992, with a squad featuring some of the world's best-known athletes - Michael Jordan, Magic Johnson and Larry Bird - the gold-medal winning US "Dream Team" gave an exhibition of basketball at its best. After an NBA All-Star packed team finished only sixth during the recent FIBA World Championship in 2002, the question will remain if the winning streak of US teams can prevail in future Olympic Games.

Women's basketball hasn't been quite such a one-sided affair. Since it joined the Olympic programme in 1976, the gold medals have been divided between the US, the Soviet Union and, after the break-up of the Soviet Union, the Commonwealth of Independent States. After a bronze medal in Atlanta and a Silver medal in Sydney, Australia may have their quest for the podium as well as the traditional powerhouse Brazil.

Discipline's origin

Basketball was invented in December 1891 by James W. Naismith (1861-1939) of Canada, who was then an instructor at the International YMCA Training School in Springfield, Massachusetts, now Springfield College. The game was invented when Naismith was charged with developing an indoor game to keep his students in shape during the cold New England winter. Originally, basketball was played with peach baskets, and an attendant on a ladder retrieved the ball after a made basket. Naismith formulated 13 rules of the game, the majority of which still form the basics of the modern game.

Although primarily developed in the United States, basketball had spread internationally by the 1930s. After the foundation of the International Basketball Federation 1932 in Geneva, Switzerland.

Olympic history

Basketball was on the Olympic programme in 1904, but the event was contested by only a few American club teams and actually served as the AAU (Amateur Athletic Union of the USA) Championship for that year. Thus the event is usually considered only an exhibition. The winning team, incidentally, was the Buffalo German club, which was so dominant in those days that they were inducted into the Basketball Hall of Fame as a team.

In 1936, basketball made its first appearance as a medal sport at the Olympics, and the sport has been included in every Olympic Games since. In 1976, women's basketball was added to the programme. The United States has dominated international basketball. The USA won all the Olympic titles until 1972 when they were defeated by the Soviet Union. The Soviet women were originally the top team on the female side, winning gold in 1976, 1980 and 1992, but the US women have now surpassed them, winning gold medals in 1984, 1988, 1996 and 2000.

Today, basketball has become one of the most popular sports in the world, rivalling football (soccer) for world-wide popularity and trailing only volleyball and track and field athletics in terms of number of member federations. US College basketball is wildly popular in the United States, culminating each March with the NCAA Championships. The National Basketball Association (NBA) is the professional basketball league in the United States and universally considered to be the strongest in the world with the European leagues being close in terms of competition and public awareness.

In 1992, for the first time, NBA players were allowed to represent the USA and all other countries in national team competition. The 1992 US Team, dubbed the "Dream Team" by the world's media, was certainly the greatest basketball team ever assembled and it dominated the 1992 Olympic tournament. Full professional participation is now allowed for both men and women in basketball at the Olympics. With the United States allowed to use NBA professionals, they have reasserted their dominance at the international level, with victory in every tournament in which NBA players have participated. However, the gap between the USA and the rest of the world seems to be ever decreasing, as was witnessed during the Sydney Olympics, in which the USA was tested several times on the way to th