The basketball world is in mourning. The legendary player Uliana Semenova has died at the age of 74 after a long season dealing with serious health problems. He was 2.13 meters tall, weighed 115 kilos, stood 58 and made history in … World and European Basketball, also in Spain, where she played her last seasons and where she came to feel “really a basketball star”, as she herself acknowledged in ‘Robinson Report’.
Born in 1952 in the Latvian city of Zarasay, she soon began to excel in this discipline, both with her club, Daugawa of Riga, and with the Soviet Union national team, where she made her debut at the age of 16 and with whom she starred in absolute dominance between 1966 and 1987. Among her achievements are 15 Soviet league titles with Daugawa, 11 European Cup titles and one Ronchetti Cup. (1987). With the USSR team, almost the same: two gold medals in the Olympic Games, another three in the World Cups and 10 in the Eurobasket.
With a personal record of 56 points in a gameDuring the 18 seasons in which it participated in international competitions, its team did not lose a single official game, recalls the Spanish Basketball Federation, which in a statement wanted to convey its condolences to Semenova’s family and the Latvian national team on behalf of the entire national basketball team.
Her career made her the first non-American player that FIBA included in its Hall of Fame.
Delicate health due to acromegaly
However, his sporting career had a darker side. The physical proportions that took him to the top of this sport also hindered his physical health. His gigantic height was due to a disease called acromegaly, caused by an excess of a growth hormone called somatotroph, which caused him severe pain and has affected other players such as Roberto Dueñas or Gheorghe Muresan. At 13 years old, Uliana already measured 193 centimeters, while none of her seven siblings was taller than 1.80.
At the end of his career he was suffering from ankle osteoarthritis that did not prevent him, in the 1987-88 season, from making Getafe’s Tintoretto runners-up in the League. There he left a very pleasant memory among his teammates and rivals.
When he retired in 1989 in French Valenciennes, he had numerous health problems, including diabetes. His illness degenerated, making it impossible for him to stand up and leading to the amputation of a leg. Her health was weakening to the point that in 2022, being one of the protagonists of the third promotion of the Spanish Basketball Hall of Fame, it prevented her from attending the ceremony.
However, far from the slopes and with an economy as delicate as her health, she continued to receive support from fellow athletes who, just as they helped her when they shared a locker room and the salary she earned was not enough to make ends meet – a part of it went to the USSR -, years ago they went so far as to promote a crowdfunding campaign to pay for the adaptation of her home to her physical conditions and the relevant health needs. Today, sadness over his death reaches every corner of the planet.
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