The great basketball player Uljana Semionova has died. The Latvian was 2.13 meters tall and wrote history for the USSR
Former Latvian basketball player Uljana Semionova died yesterday, aged 73, in Riga. Uljana was the first non-American player included in the Hall of Fame, in 1993.
Uljana Semionova, in a photo from the 1980s PHOTO Facebook
Uljana Semionova, who died yesterday in her hometown of Riga at the age of 73, was one of the most successful athletes in basketball and beyond. In his 20-year career between the 1970s and 1980s, he lost only a handful of matches, making his team, Daugava Riga (11 European Cups, 8 in a row) and the Soviet national team (10 European Championships, three World Cups, two titles, never a defeat in 18 years) unbeatable.
His leg was amputated
In her first Olympic basketball appearance in 1976 in Montreal, the Soviet Union defeated the United States 112-77, with Semionova scoring 32 points. The main reason was her oversized stature: she was 2.13 meters tall. A mountain of players who made rebounds and scored baskets without having to jump.
The last years of her life were difficult for this sports legend: she lived on a modest pension, despite her impressive past, and in 2022, her leg had to be amputated due to a degenerative disease, requiring an expensive prosthesis. A wave of solidarity immediately erupted, initiated by Jacky Chazalon, a French women's basketball star and her teammate at Clermont-Ferrand in the latter part of her career, when she managed to emigrate after turning 35.
It was a national symbol
After withdrawing in 1985, he has been a source of pride for his native Latvia ever since the Baltic state regained its independence after the fall of the Berlin Wall. At 13, her Physical Education teacher recommended her to the Sports Academy in Riga, where she moved at a very young age. She was the first non-American woman inducted into the Springfield Hall of Fame in 1993. She gave her speech in Latvian, not Russian: “I am proud to honor my nation, Latvia. It makes up for the many years I couldn't represent her. Basketball taught me how to live and love“.
