Valdis Muižnieks

Shooting guard Valdis Muižnieks played with the Soviet national team from 1956-64, won three Olympic silver medals (1956-64), and was three times European champion (1957, 1959, 1961). He also participated at the 1959 World Championships, where the Soviet Union refused to play against Taiwan and was disqualified. At the club level, Muižnieks started to play basketball in 1951 with Dinamo Riga and then from 1954-64 was with ASK Riga. With ASK, Muižnieks won the Soviet title four times in a row (1955-58) and Euroleague three times in a row (1958-60). He also won two silvers (1962, 1964) and one bronze (1961) at the Soviet championships and was a runner-up at Euroleague in 1961 with ASK. Muižnieks finished his career by playing with Rigas VEF from 1964-69, winning another bronze at the Soviet championships with them in 1966.

After finishing his sporting career, Muižnieks became a sports official. From 1969-1976 he worked with the Latvian SSR Physical Culture and Sports Committee and from 1976-88 was the general manager of ASK Riga basketball team. In 2006 Muižnieks was selected as among the 10 best Soviet or Russian shooting guards of the 20th century by Russian sports newspaper Sport Express readers’ poll. His son Karlis and daughter Anete also became basketball players and later coaches. Karlis was one of the leading Latvian national team players in the 1990s and from 2004-07 and 2009 was head coach of the Latvian national team. Anete won the European title with the Soviet national team in 1982 and was Soviet champion from 1982-84.