Olimpia Basketball Club, commonly known as Olimpia de Venado Tuerto (, abbreviated Olimpia BBC) is an

Argentine Argentines (mistakenly translated Argentineans in the past; in Spanish (masculine) or (feminine)) are people identified with the country of Argentina. This connection may be residential, legal, historical or cultural. For most Argentines, s ...

professional

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 ...

club, that is based in the city of

Venado Tuerto Venado Tuerto () (Spanish for ''One Eyed Deer'') is a city in the south-west of the , 322 km from the provincial capital. It has about 76,000 inhabitants (). History Venado Tuerto was founded on April 26, 1884 by Eduardo Casey, born in L ...

Santa Fe Province The Province of Santa Fe ( es, Provincia de Santa Fe, ) is a Provinces of Argentina, province of Argentina, located in the center-east of the country. Neighboring provinces are from the north clockwise Chaco Province, Chaco (divided by the 28th ...

History

The club was established on August 26, 1940, in Barrio San Martín of

. In 1991, the team was

promoted Promotion may refer to: Marketing * Promotion (marketing), one of the four marketing mix elements, comprising any type of marketing communication used to inform or persuade target audiences of the relative merits of a product, service, brand or i ...

to the top-tier level Argentine League (LNB). In the 1994–95 season, Olimpia reached the Argentine League finals, where they were beaten by

Club Sportivo Independiente Club Sportivo Independiente, also known as Independiente de General Pico, is an Argentine sports club based in General Pico, La Pampa Province. Although many sports are practised at the club, Independiente was mostly known for its basketball tea ...

. Olimpia won its first Argentine LNB title in the 1995–96 season. The roster for that season was:

Alejandro Montecchia Alejandro Ariel Montecchia (born 1972) is a retired Argentine-Italian professional basketball player. He played at the point guard position. Professional career In his pro career, Montecchia won the South American League and Argentine League ch ...

, Walter Guiñazú, Federico Helale,

Jorge Racca Jorge Oscar Racca (born September 4, 1971 in General Pico, La Pampa, Argentina) is an Argentine-Italian retired male professional basketball player. At 6'6" (1.98 m) and 218 lbs. (99 kg), he played at the shooting guard and small forward position ...

Leonardo Gutiérrez Leonardo "Leo" Martín Gutiérrez (born May 16, 1978) is an Argentine former professional basketball coach and former player. He played as a power forward.

Lucas Victoriano Lucas Javier Victoriano Acosta (born November 5, 1977 in Tucumán) is a former Argentine-Spanish professional basketball player. Professional career In his pro career, Victoriano played in the Argentine League, the Spanish League, the Ital ...

, Sebastián Uranga,

Todd Jadlow Todd Michael Jadlow (born April 26, 1966) is an American former professional basketball player. He played the center and forward positions. 6'9" tall, he played collegiately for the Indiana University (Bloomington) Hoosiers from 1985 to 1989 and ...

, Andrés Rodríguez, Carlos López Jordan, Alejandro Burgos, and Michael Lamont Wilson. The team's

head coach A head coach, senior coach or manager is a professional at training and developing athletes. They typically hold a more public profile and are paid more than other coaches. In some sports, the head coach is instead called the "manager", as in assoc ...

was Horacio Seguí, while Jorge Racca was named the Argentine League MVP. That same year, Olimpia also won the

FIBA South American League The International Basketball Federation (FIBA ; French: ) is an association of national organizations which governs the sport of basketball worldwide. Originally known as the (hence FIBA), in 1989 it dropped the word ''amateur'' from its na ...

, after defeating the Brazilian Championship team S.C. Corinthians Paulista, in the final. Jorge Racca was also the MVP of that competition. The club also competed at the 1996 edition of the

FIBA Intercontinental Cup The FIBA Intercontinental Cup, also commonly referred to as the FIBA World Cup for Champion Clubs, or the FIBA Club World Cup, is a professional basketball clubs competition that is endorsed by FIBA and the NBA. Historically, its purpose has be ...

. Nevertheless, the club then entered into a crisis, due to financial problems. By 2009, Olimpia had a debt of $1.5 million, and due to that critical situation, the basketball team disaffiliated itself from the top level Argentine League."Olimpia, orgullo histórico de Venado Tuerto, busca salvar su presente"
La Capital, 24 May 2009 The club was still in bankruptcy until 2017, when it finally cleared its debts.

Honours

Domestic

* Liga Nacional : Winners (1): 1995–96 : ''Runners-up (1)'': 1994–95

International

Liga Sudamericana Liga or LIGA may refer to: People * Līga (name), a Latvian female given name * Luciano Ligabue, more commonly known as Ligabue or ''Liga'', Italian rock singer-songwriter Sports * Liga ACB, men's professional basketball league in Spain * Liga ...

: Winners (1):

1996 File:1996 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: A Centennial Olympic Park bombing, bomb explodes at Centennial Olympic Park in Atlanta, set off by a radical Anti-abortion violence, anti-abortionist; The center fuel tank explodes on TWA Flight 8 ...

* Campeonato Panamericano : ''Runners-up (1)'': 1994 * Campeonato Sudamericano : ''Runners-up (1)'': 1994 *

: ''Runners-up (1)'':

Notable players

Héctor Campana Héctor Oscar "Pichi" Campana Marcomini (born November 10, 1964) is an Argentine former basketball player and former vice-governor of his native Córdoba Province, for the Justicialist Party from 2007 to 2011. At club level, Campana won 7 times ...

(1993–95) *

Carlos Delfino Carlos Francisco Delfino (born August 29, 1982) is an Argentine-Italian professional basketball player for Victoria Libertas Pesaro of the Italian Lega Basket Serie A (LBA). He holds dual citizenship in both Italy and Argentina. Standing at , he ...

(1998–99) *

Leonardo Gutiérrez Leonardo "Leo" Martín Gutiérrez (born May 16, 1978) is an Argentine former professional basketball coach and former player. He played as a power forward.

(1993–98) *

Wálter Herrmann Walter Herrmann Heinrich (born June 26, 1979) is an Argentine former professional basketball player. He is listed at 6'9" and 225 lbs. He was a key member of the senior men's Argentine national basketball team that won the gold medal durin ...

(1996–2000) *

(1994–98) *

Andrés Nocioni Andrés Marcelo Nocioni (born November 30, 1979) is an Argentine retired professional basketball player. He was a two-time All-EuroLeague selection before spending eight seasons in the National Basketball Association (NBA), from 2004 to 2012. No ...

(1996–97) *

Esteban Pérez Esteban Daniel Pérez Spatazza (born March 26, 1966 in Rosario, Santa Fe) is a retired male basketball player (2.00 metres) from Argentina, who competed for his native country at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia Atlanta ( ) is ...

(1999–2000) *

(1994–97, 2007) *

Selem Safar Selem Safar (born 6 May 1987) is an Argentine professional basketball player of Syrian origin. He has also been a member the senior Argentine national basketball team, and their junior teams in the past. Professional career Safar has played in t ...

(2005–2006) * Sebastián Uranga (1994–97, 1998–99) *

(1995–97) *

Pat Durham Patrick Wayne Durham (born March 10, 1967) is a retired American professional basketball player who played in the National Basketball Association (NBA) and several other top professional leagues. He was selected by the Dallas Mavericks in the se ...

(1992–93) *

* Levy Middlebrooks (2000) * Michael Lamont Wilson

Head coaches

* Horacio Seguí

References

External links

Twitter page
Basketball teams in Argentina Basketball teams established in 1940 {{Argentina-basketball-team-stub