Today, on January 29, 2022, Belarusian Basketball Federation is celebrating its 30-year anniversary.
On July 27, 1990, the Declaration of State Sovereignty of the Belarusian Soviet Socialist Republic was passed. On August 25, 1991, it was constitutionalized, and on September 19 our country acquired its current name the Republic of Belarus.
Belarusian Basketball Federation was registered in the Ministry of Justice on January 29, 1992.
International Basketball Federation (FIBA) recognized its status on July 10, 1992 as per the official letter signed by the General Secretary Borislav Stankovich on July 15, 1992: “We welcome you in our basketball family currently comprising 192 National Federations.”
In accordance with the Decree of the Executive Committee of the National Olympic Committee of Belarus dated March 23, 1993, a number of republican sports federations belonging to international sports federations recognized by the International Olympic Committee, including the Basketball Federation of the Republic of Belarus, were recognized with the rights of collective NOC members.
In accordance with the NOC Charter, the decision was submitted for approval by the Olympic Assembly, which took place on January 11, 1994 and approved through Resolution No. 2. Later in 1997, the name of the federation was changed to the “Belarusian Basketball Federation” (Ministry of Justice, 04.03.1997, No. 0862).
From 2001 to 2003, the registration of regional branches of the Belarusian Basketball Federation took place.
The leaders of the federation during its years of sovereignty were:
1992 - 1998 - Alexander Bondar;
1998 - 2001 - Nikolai Ananiev;
2001 - 2008 - Lev Pimenov;
2008 - 2014 – Viktor Kamenkov;
2014 - present day – Maxim Ryzhenkov.
The Olympic champions in the USSR and the CIS teams are Ivan Edeshko (Munich 1972), Tatyana Beloshapko (Moscow 1980), Irina Sumnikova and Elena Shvaibovich (both – Barcelona 1992) as well as the bronze medalists of the Olympics Irina Sumnikova and Galina Savitskaya (both – Seoul 1988).
In the history of the sovereign Belarus, the women's National team won the bronze medal in the Europe Cup 2007, twice took part in the Olympics (Beijing 2008 and Rio 2016) and regularly entered the top 8 at the World and Europe Cup.
In 1994, the youth men's team won the U22 Europe Cup.
In 1986 Minsk hosted the Women’s World Cup, and in 2018 the FIBA U17 Women’s Basketball World Cup.
In 2015, the women's 3x3 youth team ranked second in the first the FIBA U18 Europe Cup held in Minsk, and in 2019, at the 2nd European Games in Minsk, the men's and women's 3x3 basketball teams became bronze medalists.
In 2021, the women's and men's teams were awarded bronze medals in 3x3 basketball in the FIBA U17 Europe Cup and the FIBA U18 World Cup, respectively, and two of our teams collected silver medals at the 2021 CIS Games.
The Belarusian women's 3x3 team received the right to participate in the first Olympic qualifying tournament to compete for the opportunity to get to Tokyo 2020 Olympics. This tournament was held from May 26 to May 31, 2021 in Graz (Austria). Our team successfully passed the group stage and made it to the quarterfinals, where they lost to the US team fielding top women's basketball players in the NBA.
In 2021, the U15 women's National team won silver medals for the first time in the FIBA World Skills Challenge, held under the auspices of the International Basketball Federation. Men's youth U20 team (coached by G. Kondrusevich) took second place in FIBA U20 European Challengers 2021 in Hungary, bested only by the hosts of the competition.
11 athletes of youth 3x3 basketball teams and 3 coaches became scholarship holders of the Presidential Sports Club for 2022.
In our country, more than 6,000 athletes go in for sports, men's and women's teams take part in major international tournaments, representatives of Belarus are members of the governing bodies and commissions of FIBA Europe.
The BBF continues to work on restoring the history of the sport on the territory of Belarus in the 1920-1930s.
Thanks to the work of the archives staff as well as employees and members of the BBF, quite a few interesting facts have already been collected, which we will discuss in great length throughout 2022.
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