FIBA Women Leaders Program to Support Women's Leadership Growth

• The year 2026 will see the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup take place in Germany
• The year also sees important milestones in FIBA’s Women in Basketball initiative
• One of the important initiatives is the FIBA Women Leaders’ Program, which is supported by Molten

The FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup will be held in Germany in 2026, as well as a host of projects under the Women in Basketball initiative at FIBA. One such project is the FIBA Women Leaders’ Program, which is supported by Molten.

This project, a joint effort between FIBA and its partner Molten, is the result of Molten’s #KeepPlaying campaign, which was launched in the summer of 2025. This campaign included activities in Europe, Asia, and the Americas.

The project will see the selection of 10 participants, two from each FIBA region. After a rigorous selection process, Montenegro’s Milica Jovanovic and recently retired Serbian international Tina Krajisnik were selected as Europe’s representatives.

Europe had the most applicants for the initial round, with 15 female leaders applying for the program. After sending in videos of their projects, five finalists were selected and asked to participate in personal interviews.

The final selection was made based on leadership qualities, commitment, vision, project goals, innovation, feasibility, impact, and scalability.

By matching young female athletes with mentors, Full Circle aims to keep young girls playing basketball throughout the critical years of development, while also ensuring that we capture and maintain the knowledge that these retired female basketball players bring to the game.

Full Circle will serve as a global model for countries, both large and small; the pilot program is currently being developed in Montenegro.

Basketball Is for Girls, Tina’s program, seeks to empower girls (age 7-18) through the game of basketball; she stated that the majority of girls stop playing basketball by the age of 17.

Tina will spread the game of basketball throughout primary schools by holding workshops that will expose girls to the game and motivate them to get started on their own basketball journey.

The program will also provide mentorship and psychological assistance to young female athletes during some of the most challenging times of their careers in order to improve retention.

Milica and Tina will join other participants from different regions in March when the program starts. During the program, they will further develop their projects via online webinars, culminating in a final workshop in Berlin during the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup 2026.

According to Milica, the program bridges the gap between playing basketball and enhancing the sport by equipping participants with the necessary skills and training required for leadership positions.

Tina also added that the guidance provided by the program has been very helpful in her transition from a player to a mentor, enabling her to equip future generations of leaders with the necessary tools.