Although the European Basketball Championship was put on hold between 1939 and 1946 because of World War II, the South American Basketball Championship was held every year between 1937 and 1945. Following the war years, basketball continued to grow in popularity; the 1947 European Basketball Championship drew a record fourteen teams. Basketball was again part of the Olympics in 1948. Despite the continued dominance of the gold medal-winning American team, the tournament was a resounding success, drawing 23 nations that were evenly disbursed around the world (eight from Europe, five from South America, five from Asia, four from North America, and one from Africa), though defending European champions Soviet Union did not take part in the event.