We all know that in every country there is always a certain sport where the country excels.
In Russia there are a lot of sports where they are famous of because of their achievements. Russia is known for their visibility in Olympics and international competitions in almost any sport.
They are often successful in bringing home the gold medal for their country. Some of the sports that they excel are: track and field, wrestling, fencing, volleyball and ice hockey…by this, it only shows that Russia is active in sports and the citizens there are definitely very athletic.
Basketball in Russia is one of the most popular sports as of the moment together with ice hockey and football. Due to their obvious passion in basketball and eagerness to be popular in the field of sports around the world they decided to create teams that would represent the country internationally. The national teams created are currently showing that basketball in Russia is definitely something that they could be proud of.
Let us now discuss the men and women national basketball teams and their achievements for the country which made basketball in Russia more widespread.
Russia men’s national basketball team
Basketball in Russia became a talk of the town when the government decided to create a national team men’s division. The team came into existence after Russia has been separated to Soviet Union, after that the team started to create their own basketball history.
The team joined FIBA in year 1992 and ranked 11th in it. In the FIBA World Championships they had participated in 4 seasons and was able to win 2 silver medals in year 1994 and 1998. In Eurobasket they had joined in 10 seasons and won a total of 3 medals which are: a silver medal in year 1993, bronze medal in 1997 and their recent achievement in the said tournament is gold medal in year 2007 which made them popular in Europe and now considered as a threat in the said competition.
They are now becoming a threat in EuroLeagues nowadays but in terms of Olympic competitions in which they usually excel in many sports it is a little bit depressing to know that they had only appeared twice and had not won even a single medal.
Russia women’s national basketball team
The women national team has more achievement than Russia men’s national team, they had started joining the FIBA World Championship for Women in year 1998 and up to now they continue to give pride to their country for they rank 2nd in FIBA.
Basketball in Russia is perhaps a very popular sport in the country considering that women are into it as well and is in fact doing a good job in garnering banners for Russia.
The women team was able to gather three silver medals in year 1998, 2002 and 2006 in FIBA World Competitions. The team has won 7 medals out of their 8 appearance in EuroLeagues the medals consist of 2 gold, 3 silver and 2 bronze and in the Olympic competitions they were able to grab 2 bronze in year 2004 and 2008.