Francesca Belibi (born July 20, 2001) is an American

college basketball In United States colleges, top-tier basketball is governed by collegiate athletic bodies including National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA), the National Association of Intercollegiate Athletics (NAIA), the United States Collegiate Athleti ...

player for the

Stanford Cardinal The Stanford Cardinal are the athletic teams that represent Stanford University. As of June, 2022, Stanford's program has won 131 NCAA team championships. Stanford has won at least one NCAA team championship each academic year for 46 consecutive ...

of the

Pac-12 Conference The Pac-12 Conference is a collegiate List of NCAA conferences, athletic conference, that operates in the Western United States, participating in 24 sports at the NCAA Division I level. Its College football, football teams compete in the NCAA D ...

. She drew national attention in high school for her dunking ability. In 2020, she became the eighth woman to dunk in a women's college basketball game. In 2021, she won the

NCAA championship The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) is a nonprofit organization that regulates student athletics among about 1,100 schools in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico. It also organizes the athletic programs of colleges and ...

with Stanford.

Early life

Born in

Kansas City, Kansas Kansas City, abbreviated as "KCK", is the third-largest city in the U.S. state of Kansas, and the county seat of Wyandotte County. It is an inner suburb of the older and more populous Kansas City, Missouri, after which it is named. As of ...

to Franck and Suzanne Belibi, who were born in Cameroon and moved to Belgium before coming to the United States. The family later moved to

Centennial, Colorado Centennial is a home rule municipality located in Arapahoe County, Colorado, United States. The city population was 108,418 at the 2020 United States Census, making Centennial the 11th most populous municipality in Colorado. Centennial is a par ...

High school career

Belibi started playing competitive basketball for the first time during her freshman year at

Regis Jesuit High School Regis Jesuit High School is a private, Catholic, college preparatory high school administered by the Central and Southern Province of the Society of Jesus in Aurora, Colorado. It was founded by the Jesuits in 1877. The high school shares much of ...

. In 2017, she became the first girl to dunk in a game in Colorado high school history. In February 2019, she pulled off the first ever alley-oop dunk by a female in a high school game in Colorado. As a senior she averaged 21.8 points, 12.3 rebounds, 3.4 steals, 2.7 blocks and 2.3 assists per game. She was named a

McDonald's All-American McDonald's Corporation is an American multinational fast food chain, founded in 1940 as a restaurant operated by Richard and Maurice McDonald, in San Bernardino, California, United States. They rechristened their business as a hamburger ...

in 2019 and went on to become the second woman to win the dunk contest at the McDonald's All American Game, after

Candace Parker Candace Nicole Parker (born April 19, 1986) is an American professional basketball player for the Chicago Sky of the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). She was selected as the first overall pick in the 2008 WNBA draft by the Los An ...

who won in 2004.

College career

During her freshman season she averaged 6.6 points and 4.5 rebounds per game in 32 games, making six starts. In December 2020, she became the eighth woman to dunk in a college basketball game when she dunked with under a minute left in the first half of Stanford's victory against

California California is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, located along the West Coast of the United States, Pacific Coast. With nearly 39.2million residents across a total area of approximately , it is the List of states and territori ...

. Eight days later, she had another dunk in a victory against

UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California. UCLA's academic roots were established in 1881 as a teachers college then known as the southern branch of the California St ...

. On April 4, 2021, Belibi won the

after Stanford beat the

Arizona Wildcats The Arizona Wildcats are the sport, athletic teams that represent the University of Arizona, located in Tucson, Arizona, Tucson. The Wildcats compete at the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) NCAA Division I, Division I (NCAA Divis ...

, 54–53, in the national title game. On March 19, 2022, Belibi had the third dunk in NCAA women's tournament history when she dunked midway through the second quarter of Stanford's 78-37 first round victory against Montana State.

National team career

Belibi has won three gold medals playing for the United States junior national teams, 2019 FIBA Under-19 Women's Basketball World Cup, 2018 FIBA Under-17 Women's Basketball World Cup and the 2017 FIBA Under-16 Women's Americas Championship.

Personal life

Belibi is listed 6'1" in shoes but 5'11" without them. She has a 6-foot-5 wingspan and a 31-inch vertical leap. Belibi has two younger sisters and one younger brother. Fabiola, the second born child will be attending Harvard university for track, Hana, the third oldest is a Junior at Regis Jesuit high school, playing girls EYBl with colorado premier, and her youngest sibling, Franck is a 6'2 13 year old who is a top 50 prospect via top 25 scouts and fox sports.

References

External links

Stanford Cardinal bioUSA Basketball bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belibi, Fran 2001 births Living people American women's basketball players Forwards (basketball) McDonald's High School All-Americans Sportspeople from Kansas City, Kansas Stanford Cardinal women's basketball players Basketball players from Kansas Basketball players from Colorado American people of Cameroonian descent