RIO DE JANEIRO — Former BYU guard Maria Albiero will compete for the Brazilian women’s national team in the FIBA Pre-World Qualifiers in Rwanda, Africa from Aug. 19-25.
Albiero was one of 12 athletes who emerged from the two-week training camp and will represent her home country in its quest to qualify for the Pre-World Championships in Germany in 2026. The tournament will feature 16 teams fighting for one guaranteed spot in the Pre-World Championships.
In the group stage, Brazil will take on Hungary, the Philippines and Senegal. If they advance, Albiero and company will face a group that includes Rwanda, Argentina, Lebanon and the United Kingdom in the semifinal.
Albiero played in 146 games at BYU, the most ever by a Cougar player, and started the 19th-most contests with 91. Her assist-to-turnover ratio of 1.79:1 is the seventh highest for any BYU player. The Cougar alum recorded 346 assists in her career, the 18th most in program history and played the 16th-most minutes for any BYU player.
The 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Championships will involve 24 teams, with the winners of the pre-qualifying tournaments in Mexico and Rwanda and an additional 22 teams determined by results in the 2025 FIBA Women's Continental Cups, such as the 2025 AmeriCupW.
A total of 16 nations, including host Germany, will get their tickets and compete in the FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup as part of an expanded field.
This expansion increases inclusion and competitiveness and creates more opportunities for women's basketball, with 28 women's national teams participating in global competitions this year and 32 teams in the 2026 World Cup year, in line with the numbers for the men's World Cup, just in a different format.
Brazil will play its first game on Aug. 19 at 1 a.m. MT with a live feed on the FIBA YouTube channel.