Uljana Semjonova

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

7-foot tall Semjonova (although she has been reported as being any height between 6-foot 10 inches tall and 7-foot 2 inches tall) was the leading women's basketball player in the world in the 1970s and 1980s. Wearing a mens size 21 (US) / 58 (EU) shoe, she was known for having the largest feet ever in women's basketball. 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, [cite book|title=All about Olympic Games.|author=Boris Khavin|publisher=Fizkultura i sport|edition = 2nd ed.|pages=p. 578|year=1979|location=Moscow|language=Russian] and in 1993 became the first non-US woman enshrined into the Basketball Hall of Fame. She was an inaugural member of the Women's Basketball Hall of Fame in the class of 1999. In 2007, she was enshrined in the FIBA Hall of Fame.

References

External links

* [http://www.hoophall.com/halloffamers/bhof-uljana-semjonova.html Basketball Hall of Fame entry]
* [http://www.halloffame.fiba.com/pages/eng/hof/indu/play/2007/p/lid_17904_newsid/19962/bio.html FIBA Hall of Fame page on Semjonova]
* [http://hoopedia.nba.com/index.php/Uljana_Semjonova Hoopedia bio]