Latvian basketball players will host Smildziņa-Budovska in the FIBA ​​Hall of Fame

Born in 1943, Smildziņa-Budovska became a world women’s basketball star at the age of 16. In the summer of 1959, the world championship was held in Moscow, and the head coach of the Soviet Union’s national team, the Lithuanian Steps Butauts, also included the talented Latvian in the team, who helped the national team win the championship title.

Smildziņa-Budovska won three gold medals at the World Championships, and five at the European Championships. With the TTT team, she won the European Champions Cup 11 times.

Established in 2007, the two-time Olympic, three-time world and ten-time European champion, as well as the twelve-time winner of the European Cup Ulyana Semyonova, were included in the core composition of the FIBA ​​Hall of Fame. In 2017, the world and two-time European champion Valdis Valters was inducted into the FIBA ​​Hall of Fame.

So far, 66 male and 30 female players have been inducted into the category of FIBA ​​Hall of Fame players.

37 people were accepted into the coaching category, including Aleksandrs Gomelskis, who worked in Riga for the first 12 years of his long career (1953-1964), and under his leadership, ASK won the European Cup three times.

14 people were admitted to the judges’ category, 35 people to the organizers’ category and eight organizations – the national basketball federations of Argentina, Czechoslovakia, Greece, Italy, Latvia, Portugal, Romania, Switzerland, the founding countries of FIBA.

Candidates for admission to the FIBA ​​Hall of Fame are nominated by national federations. LBS has also nominated Latvian basketball legends Olģerts Altberga, Valdemārs Baumans, Dzintra Grundmans, Helena Hechts (Bitner), Rūdolfa Jurciņa, Juri Kalniņa, Dzidra Karamiševas (Uztupi), Raimonda Karnītis, Silvija Kroder (Ravdoni), Jānis Krūmiņa, Valdi for admission to the FIBA ​​Hall of Fame. Muižnieku, Tālivaldi Peterson, Imanta Pļaviņu, Juri Silaraju, Gunār Siliņu, Maija Šiliņu (Salenieci), Maigoni Valdmani.