Igor Olshansky

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Igor Olshansky
Date of birth	May 3, 1982 (age 24)
Place of birth	Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine
Position(s)	Defensive end
College	Oregon
NFL Draft	2004 / Round 2/ Pick 36
Statistics	CBS.com
Team(s)
2004-present	San Diego Chargers

Igor Olshansky (born May 3, 1982 in Dnipropetrovsk, Ukraine) is the first Soviet-born player in the National Football League.

One of the strongest players in the National Football League, Olshansky (E-gor, ol-SHAN-ski) has helped make the Chargers’ defensive line one of the league’s best. His play helped the Bolts finish the 2005 season atop the league rankings for run defense, allowing only 84.3 yards per game. In 2004, when he started as a rookie, the Chargers finished third in the NFL in rushing defense, allowing only 81.7 yards per game.

Igor moved from Ukraine to San Francisco when he was 9 years old.

He attended St. Ignatius College Preparatory in San Francisco, where he played basketball until his junior year. That year, Igor met Vince Tringali, a former St. Ignatius football coach. Tringali saw Igor's massive potential and converted him to football. He was first-team all-league, second-team all-metro by the San Francisco Examiner and honorable mention all-area by San Jose Mercury News.

At the University of Oregon, where he majored in psychology, he was second-team All-Pac-10 as a junior, honorable mention as sophomore, and recipient of the Joe Schaffeld Trophy as the Ducks’ top defensive lineman after his sophomore and junior seasons. At Oregon, he set a team record with a 505-pound bench press. After an outstanding career for the Ducks, Igor left school following his junior season.

At an NFL Draft combine, Igor set a new record of forty-three bench-press repetitions of 225 pounds.

In the second round (# 35) of the 2004 NFL draft, the San Diego Chargers selected him out of the University of Oregon. He signed a 6-year contract in August 2004.

Having completed his first season as an NFL player, Olshansky is beginning to establish a reputation as an effective and skilled defensive lineman.

Olshansky was ejected from a game against the Denver Broncos November 19, 2006, for punching Broncos center Tom Nalen, after what appeared to be Nalen trying to cut block Olshansky on a clock-stopping spike play. Two days later, the NFL fined Nalen $25,000 for the cut block, more than double the $10,000 fine Olshansky received for the punch.

[edit] Miscellaneous

He married the former Liya Rubinshteyn. The couple lives in San Diego.

His granfather Abraham Rubashevsky fought for the Red Army in World War II and was wounded 11 times, leaving his left hand disabled. Due in part to the influence of his grandfather, he still studies military history and martial arts.

Olshansky is proud of his Jewish heritage. He has many tattoos, including two of the Star of David. He is regularly featured in Jewish news publications locally and nationally. For several years Igor attended the Chabad-run Hebrew Academy.[1]