Ten Standout FIBA Women Lighting Up the 2026 World Cup as Berlin Hits the Quarterfinals

BERLIN — The 2026 FIBA Women's Basketball World Cup is not short of names. It is short of nights when one of them does not take the game.

Sixteen teams are in Germany through Sept. 13. The United States is chasing a fifth straight title without A'ja Wilson and Kelsey Plum, both out for health reasons. France, Belgium, Australia and Spain have already shown that the rest of the world is closer than the Americans' 66-game Olympic-and-World-Cup streak suggests. These 10 players — ranked by impact in Berlin and on the qualifying trail, not by highlight-reel fame alone — are the ones filling arenas and box scores.

Breanna Stewart is the adult in the U.S. huddle. The New York Liberty forward was World Cup MVP in 2018 and Olympic MVP in Tokyo. USA Today ranked her the best player in the field before tip-off. She is chasing a fourth World Cup gold, a mark only Sue Bird has reached. With Wilson out, Stewart starts beside Chelsea Gray, Jackie Young, Kahleah Copper and Napheesa Collier. She is averaging elite two-way numbers in the WNBA and has the only résumé in the U.S. locker room that stretches to 2014.

Caitlin Clark made her World Cup debut off the bench against China and posted 14 points and 11 assists with zero turnovers, a first in official Women's World Cup assist tracking since 1994. Coach Kara Lawson said, "I thought Caitlin was terrific, coming off the bench and changing the tempo of the game. Her playmaking with 11 assists." Clark, TISSOT MVP of the San Juan qualifying tournament, said of the gold-medal veterans in the starting five: "Being surrounded by five people that have won a gold medal before at the highest level, you just try to follow their lead and take every bit of wisdom that they can give you."

Gabby Williams is the leading scorer in the tournament so far, at 18.7 points on 58.8 percent shooting and 55 percent from three for a 3-0 France side, per SB Nation's early ranking. The Golden State Valkyries forward won France's Alain Gilles Trophy and a FIBA Europe SuperCup MVP with Fenerbahçe. France drew China in Thursday's quarterfinals.

Emma Meesseman is doing Belgium things: 18.3 points, 8 rebounds and 6.3 assists on 50 percent shooting through group play, including a win over Australia. The Liberty big is a two-time EuroBasket MVP and a WNBA Finals MVP. Belgium is into a quarterfinal against Germany.

Angel Reese and Paige Bueckers are the other half of the U.S. youth wave. Both came off the bench in the China opener as Lawson rolled 12 players for at least 10 minutes. Reese's rebounding and Bueckers' pace give the Americans a second unit that looks like a first unit in most other groups.

Jackie Young and Napheesa Collier are the connectors. Young is a Paris gold medalist who can run an offense when Gray sits. Collier missed the start of the WNBA season with injury and still made Berlin. They are why the U.S. can survive Wilson's absence for a week.

Isobel Borlase announced Australia's next era without Lauren Jackson on the floor. Off the bench against a knockout-round opponent she scored 30 points with five assists — only the fifth 30-and-5 game at a Women's World Cup since 1994, the Olympics site noted, and the most an Australian had scored in Berlin to that point. The last bench scorer in that range for the Opals over 12 years was Jackson. "I just hope I've inspired someone tonight," Borlase said after the win that put Australia into a Thursday quarterfinal with Spain.

Marine Johannes is Williams' backcourt partner and a reason France went 3-0. Iyana Martin, the Portland Fire guard, has been Spain's engine into that Australia game. SB Nation slotted both among the top non-U.S. performers of the opening week.

Wilson still belongs on any 2026 FIBA conversation even though she is not in Berlin. She was 2022 World Cup MVP, 2024 Olympic MVP and the reigning WNBA MVP, leading the league at 26.6 points and 2 blocks per game when the roster was named. Her withdrawal, announced Aug. 31 with Plum's, is the hole every other name on this list is playing around.

Lawson is not pretending the field is static. "I think there's no question that the world is improving at a rapid rate. It's so exciting to see, and I see it at every level," she said before the tournament. France came within a point of the U.S. in the Paris gold-medal game. Belgium beat Australia. A 21-year-old Australian just dropped 30 off the bench.

Quarterfinals on Thursday: United States-Hungary, France-China, Belgium-Germany, Spain-Australia. Semifinals are Sept. 12. The final is Sept. 13. The hottest names in women's FIBA this week are the ones still on the floor in Berlin, and the ones who just forced everyone else to learn a new one.