Women's basketball in Russia today is experiencing certain difficulties. The team could not qualify for the Olympics in Rio, does not shine at other competitions. There is a difficult process of generational change. However, today, one of the strongest basketball players of the 2000s, Irina Osipova, stands for the national team, whose biography will be described below. This athlete remembers the victories of the glorious team of the zero years. She is a champion in the number of victories in the Euroleague, a multiple winner of world championships, olympiads, as well as a European champion.
Center daughter
A Russian basketball player was born in Moscow in 1981 in a sports family. Mom played as the centerpiece in the Hammer and Sickle factory team. Dad also played basketball. Osipova Irina, whose height is 196 cm today, went to her parents with physical data and was simply obliged to become a basketball player. However, the girl was looking for her vocation for a long time, doing various sports. For some time she even went skiing, but mother was able to persuade her daughter to follow in her footsteps.
The first mentor of Irina was A.K. Nuts. Osipova seriously fell in love with basketball. Immediately after training, she ran home to quickly change clothes and catch the next game of CSKA. The idols of childhood were the legendary basketball players of the nineties - Michael Jordan and Arvydas Sabonis.
Carier start
The first professional team of Irina Osipova was the Moscow "Gloria", in which she came in 1997 and spent there for five whole seasons. The girl’s coach during this period was M. Dukhovny. The athlete with excellent physical data, who could play both in the center position and as a heavy striker, did not go unnoticed. She begins to be attracted to the games for the youth and national teams of the country. In 1997, she, along with her teammates, became the European champion among girls no older than 16 years old.
Already in 2000, Irina, with her confident game, earned the right to play for the country's main team. She was able to truly prove herself at the World Championships held in China in 2002. By that time, the basketball player had already moved to Dynamo Moscow, but she did not receive enough playing practice at the club, mainly spending time on the bench. But Irina Osipova was able to take her chance and, leaving the bench at the world championship, became one of the tournament's discoveries. For the final match against the Americans, she was already one of the key players in the team and earned the title of vice world champion.
Ekaterinburg period
Many talented players often have disagreements with the team coach. So it happened with Irina Osipova. She could not find a common language with Dynamo mentor T. Ovechkina and in 2002 she moved to the Yekaterinburg UMMC. The Ural club in those years was one of the strongest in Europe, girls from the female NBA played in the composition. Osipova Irina Viktorovna won the right to play in conditions of fierce competition. Despite her tall stature, she was very elegant and light, with good coordination, and could play both center and striker.
2003 was a very successful year in Irina’s career. Together with the UMMC, she becomes the champion of Russia, playing for the national team, winning the gold of the continental championship. Especially spectacular was the final match of the European Championship. Osipova became the most productive in this game, having earned 16 points, and a couple of tens of seconds before the siren threw a decisive ball into the ring. Playing for the UMMC, the athlete is the first, but not the last time in her life, to win the women's Euroleague.
In 2004, Irina Osipova could not do without at the Olympics in Athens. The main favorites, as in all tournaments, were the Americans, with whom the Russians were to meet in the semifinals. The girls lost only four points to formidable rivals, and in the match for third place they confidently beat the Brazil national team. So the girl collected all the significant awards both in the club and in the national team.
Golden years of women's Russian basketball and Irina Osipova
After leaving the UMMC, in 2004, the basketball player wandered around to various clubs for some time. For two seasons, she replaced VBM-SSAU, the Israeli Elitsur, having managed to win the Israeli championship. In 2005, she seriously and for a long time came to the Sparta & K team near Moscow. This club has become a serious project. Many strong American basketball players played in the squad, trained by the famous Slovak Natalia Kheykova. For seven seasons spent in the team, Irina Osipova won many titles, including four times the Euroleague.
At her second world championship, the basketball player played in 2006. Just like two years earlier at the Olympics, in the semifinals, the Russians had to play against the US team. After two defeats in a row at major tournaments, the girls tried their best and defeated principled rivals on courage who looked invincible.
However, this match took all the forces from the Russians, and in the final they lost the Australian team in all respects. Again, Osipova Irina leaves the world championship with a silver medal. A year later, the athlete wins the European Championship for the second time in her life with the team. Like the men, the girls beat the Spanish team in the final. In the same year, Irina, playing for the club "Sparta & K", wins the Euroleague.
Short overseas period
NBA is the strongest club tournament of the planet for both men and women. Irina dreamed of playing in North America since Osipova since childhood. In 2006, she was invited to the Detroit Shock. However, at this time, the athlete had not fully regained her form after leaving the decree, in addition, her thoughts were more occupied by her little daughter. Therefore, she was not able to fully play for the new club and in the same year returned to her homeland. The most annoying thing is that after just a couple of weeks the Detroit club won the women's NBA, and Irina Osipova missed the opportunity to collect absolutely all possible awards in world basketball.
Olympic cycle 2008-2012
The Beijing Olympics became the second for the basketball player. Like four years ago, the Russian team lost to the favorites in the semifinals and played in the match for third place. The rivals went to the Chinese team. The hostesses of the tournament were much inferior in class to the taller and more skilled Russian women, but their native stands constantly drove them forward. Only with great difficulty was it possible to win that game and take bronze. Playing for Sparta, Irina Osipova continues to collect victories in the Euroleague. From 2008 to 2011, the Moscow Region team won three times in the main tournament of the continent.
Preparations for the 2010 World Cup became one of the most scandalous for women's basketball. A few days before the start of the tournament, the head coach refused the team, and convulsive rearrangements of the squad affected the game. Already at the stage of the quarter-finals, Irina Osipova and her partners dropped out of the competition, losing to the national team of Belarus. They managed to rehabilitate a year later, when they again managed to win the European Championship.
Not without adventure at the 2012 Olympics. Due to the injury, the main center team dropped out - Maria Stepanova. The experienced Irina Osipova had to assume the role of a leader. She did everything she could, and the national team reached the semi-finals of the competition for the third time in a row. However, in the match for third place, the girls lost to the Australians.
To Dynamo (Kursk) via Istanbul
After the London games, Osipova Irina decided to change the situation and moved to play for the team of Istanbul University. The new team just entered the strongest division of the Turkish championship, and the girl decided so far not to exhaust the nervous system in the struggle for high titles. She spent a short period of time in the Slovak club, which went to the Euroleague and asked for help from the multiple winner of this tournament.
But Irina soon began to experience difficulties with crossing borders and decided to return home to end her career at home. In 2014, she accepts an offer from the ambitious club Dynamo (Kursk), which at that time began to fight for high places. She played for this team until 2016, until she went on maternity leave, simultaneously becoming the team captain and winning the Russian Cup.
Personal life
There is no athlete in world basketball more serious and focused on her favorite business than Irina Osipova. Basketball, husband, family - these are her main values. The first husband of Irina was sommelier Vitaliy. However, they broke up, and in 2007 the athlete married a second time. The chosen one of the girl is Ruslan Musundo Kentombo. Such an exotic combination of name and surname is explained by the fact that the groom's father had African roots, and his mother was a purebred Russian woman.
Now the athlete is raising her daughter Alena, who is simply obliged to replace her mother on her long-term duty as part of the Russian team.