Name Olga Yakovleva Role Basketball Player | Weight 86 kg | |
Died August 8, 2010, Yuzhne, Ukraine | ||
Olga Yakovleva (sometimes spelled Iakovleva; June 15, 1986 – August 8, 2010) was a Russian women's basketball player.
Olga was born in Vologda, Russia and represented her country in the FIBA under-19 and under-21 World Championships. In 2009, Olga was selected as Eurobasket.com All-Russian Superleague Honorable Mention. That same year, she won silver at the World University Games in Belgrade.
Contents
Olga played center for the Vologda-Chevakata Russian basketball team. Standing at well over 6 feet, she helped Vologda-Chevakata make it to the Russian Cup (basketball) semifinals in 2010.
Death
On August 8, 2010, Olga Yakovleva drowned in the Vologda-Chevakata training camp pool, in Yuzhne near Odessa, Ukraine. The 24-year-old former Russian youth international player was relaxing in the pool with her colleagues and team coach Yury Zimin. He later told Lifenews.ru how he saw her start to swim underwater, and then saw her surface with “glassy eyes”. Medics said it was a “one in a million” accident: the autopsy showed no evidence of a seizure.