Twelve teams qualified for the women's basketball at the 2020 Summer Olympics tournament (postponed to 2021[1] due to the COVID-19 pandemic).
Thus, while two of the World Qualifying Tournaments provided quota spots to their three top teams, the other two tournaments provided quota spots only to the top two teams plus either the host nation or the World Cup winner.
The cities of Ostend, Bourges, Belgrade, and Foshan had been awarded the hosting rights of the four FIBA Women's Olympic Qualifying Tournaments, from 6 to 9 February 2020.
[3] However, the Foshan tournament was moved to Belgrade due to concerns over the COVID-19 pandemic.
The top six teams from the 2019 Women's Afrobasket played in the Africa pre-qualifying tournament from 14 to 17 November 2019.
However, Division B of was not held since there was no nation willing to host the tournament, and India which placed last in the FIBA Women's Asia Cup were given a slot in the Asia/Oceania qualifiers.
The Olympic host (Japan) and the World Cup winner (United States) automatically qualified for the WOQTs, each taking a spot from their respective continent.