Uljana Semjonova

Medal record

Stefania Passaro boxing out Uljana Semjonova
Women's Basketball
Gold 1976 Montreal Team
Gold 1980 Moscow Team

Uļjana Semjonova (Russian: Ульяна Ларионовна Семенова), (born March 9, 1952 in village Medumi, Daugavpils District, Latvia) is a retired Soviet Latvian basketball player.

Standing at 2.13 m (7 ft 0 in)[1] Semjonova was the leading women's basketball player in the world in the 1970s and 1980s. Wearing a men's size 21 (US) / 58 (EU) shoe, she was known for having the largest feet ever in women's basketball.[2][3] For almost all of her playing career, she played for TTT Riga, which was part of Daugava Voluntary Sports Society. With TTT, she won 15 championships in the Soviet Union and the European Champion's Cup 15 times. Semjonova was also very dominant in international play, winning two Olympic Gold medals while playing for the USSR in 1976 and 1980 and never lost a game in official international competition.

She was awarded the Order of the Red Banner of Labour in 1976,[4] and in 1993 became the first non-US woman enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame.[5] She was an inaugural member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 1999.[6] In 2007, she was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame. During the 2007 Latvian Sportspersonality of the year award ceremony, Semjonova received the Lifetime Contribution to Sport award.

References

  1. ^ Tancredi Palmeri: Semionova sempre gigante "Dico solo grazie allo sport" (http://www.gazzetta.it/Sport_Vari/Basket/Estero/Primo_Piano/2009/01/03/semionova.shtml). La Gazzetta dello Sport, retrieved April 26, 2011
  2. ^ Gazzetta dello Sport,Photoserie
  3. ^ Comparison with Bill Russell's footprint (size 16 US / size 52 EU),Photoserie
  4. ^ Boris Khavin (1979) (in Russian). All about Olympic Games. (2nd ed. ed.). Moscow: Fizkultura i sport. p. 578. 
  5. ^ "Hall of Famers". Basketball Hall of Fame. http://www.hoophall.com/hall-of-famers/tag/uljana-semjonova. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 
  6. ^ "WBHOF Inductees". WBHOF. http://www.wbhof.com/inductees.html. Retrieved 2009-08-01. 

External links