Džems Raudziņš (1 December 1910 – 13 December 1979) was a

Latvia Latvia ( or ; lv, Latvija ; ltg, Latveja; liv, Leţmō), officially the Republic of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Republika, links=no, ltg, Latvejas Republika, links=no, liv, Leţmō Vabāmō, links=no), is a country in the Baltic region of ...

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appr ...

player. Raudziņš won a gold medal at the

1935 EuroBasket The 1935 FIBA European Championship, commonly called EuroBasket 1935, was the first FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA, as well as a test event preceding the first Olympic basketball tournament at the 1936 Summer Olym ...

competition, becoming the first European champion. He participated also at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (German: ''Olympische Sommerspiele 1936''), officially known as the Games of the XI Olympiad (German: ''Spiele der XI. Olympiade'') and commonly known as Berlin 1936 or the Nazi Olympics, were an international multi-sp ...

and at the 1937 EuroBasket.

Career

Raudziņš was born in

Harbin Harbin (; mnc, , v=Halbin; ) is a sub-provincial city and the provincial capital and the largest city of Heilongjiang province, People's Republic of China, as well as the second largest city by urban population after Shenyang and largest ...

Manchuria Manchuria is an exonym (derived from the endo demonym " Manchu") for a historical and geographic region in Northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day Northeast China (Inner Manchuria) and parts of the Russian Far East (Outer Manc ...

where during the first half of the 20th century a notable Latvian community existed. After the

First World War World War I (28 July 1914 11 November 1918), often abbreviated as WWI, was one of the deadliest global conflicts in history. Belligerents included much of Europe, the Russian Empire, the United States, and the Ottoman Empire, with fightin ...

his family returned to Latvia. Raudziņš studied law at the

University of Latvia University of Latvia ( lv, Latvijas Universitāte, shortened ''LU'') is a state-run university located in Riga, Latvia established in 1919. The ''QS World University Rankings'' places the university between 801st and 1000th globally, seventh ...

and besides basketball worked at the Latvian Ministry of Interior in the 1930s. Raudziņš played basketball since late 1920s. He played most of his career for the university team ''Universitātes Sports'' and became a five time Latvian champion (1930; 1934-1937). He also participated in

1933 International University Games The 1933 International University Games were organised by the Confederation Internationale des Etudiants (CIE) and held in Turin, Italy. Held from 1–10 September, 27 nations competed in nine sports. Women competed only in the athletics, swimming ...

where the Latvian team won the silver medal and in University games in 1935 where Latvia won gold. Overall Raudziņš played eighteen games for the Latvian national team. In 1944, Raudziņš emigrated to Germany and later to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a Sovereign state, sovereign country comprising the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous List of islands of Australia, sma ...

where he settled in

Perth Perth is the capital and largest city of the Australian state of Western Australia. It is the fourth most populous city in Australia and Oceania, with a population of 2.1 million (80% of the state) living in Greater Perth in 2020. Perth is ...

and worked as an accountant. He died in Perth on 13 December 1979. His daughter Ilze Raudziņš played basketball for the Western Australian team in the Australian championship.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Raudzins, Dzems Latvian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players of Latvia Basketball players at the 1936 Summer Olympics 1910 births 1979 deaths People from Harbin Latvian World War II refugees Latvian emigrants to Germany Expatriates from the Russian Empire in China Australian people of Latvian descent German emigrants to Australia