Yelena Rabigovna Sokolovskaya (

née A birth name is the name of a person given upon birth. The term may be applied to the surname, the given name, or the entire name. Where births are required to be officially registered, the entire name entered onto a birth certificate or birth re ...

Akhaminova) ('' rus, Еле́на Раби́говна Соколо́вская (Ахами́нова)'') (born 5 October 1961 in Sverdlovsk) is a former

volleyball Volleyball is a team sport in which two teams of six players are separated by a net. Each team tries to score points by grounding a ball on the other team's court under organized rules. It has been a part of the official program of the Summ ...

female player and coach. As a player for the

Soviet Union The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, it was nominally a federal union of fifteen national ...

she is an Olympic gold medallist (in 1980) and European champion (in 1979).

Player career

Sokolovskaya played from 1977 until 2002 for clubs in the

Russian SFSR The Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, Russian SFSR or RSFSR ( rus, Российская Советская Федеративная Социалистическая Республика, Rossíyskaya Sovétskaya Federatívnaya Soci ...

Ukrainian SSR The Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic ( uk, Украї́нська Радя́нська Соціалісти́чна Респу́бліка, ; russian: Украи́нская Сове́тская Социалисти́ческая Респ ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of B ...

Ukraine Ukraine ( uk, Україна, Ukraïna, ) is a country in Eastern Europe. It is the second-largest European country after Russia, which it borders to the east and northeast. Ukraine covers approximately . Prior to the ongoing Russian inv ...

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It is divided into 16 administrative provinces called voivodeships, covering an area of . Poland has a population of over 38 million and is the fifth-most populous ...

and

Europe Europe is a large peninsula conventionally considered a continent in its own right because of its great physical size and the weight of its history and traditions. Europe is also considered a Continent#Subcontinents, subcontinent of Eurasia ...

. She won many titles including the

CEV Women's Champions League The Women's CEV Champions League, formerly known as CEV Champions Cup (from 1960 to 2000), is the top official competition for women's volleyball clubs of Europe and takes place every year. It is organized by the Confédération Européenne de ...

Cup Winners Cup The UEFA Cup Winners' Cup was a European football club competition contested annually by the winners of domestic cup competitions. The cup was, chronologically, the second seasonal inter-European club competition organised by UEFA. The tournam ...

, USSR Championship, USSR Cup, Polish Championship and Polish Cup. She played for the Soviet Union national team at junior and senior level from 1979 to 1983, taking part of the World Championship ( in 1982) and becoming Olympic champion ( in 1980), World Cup bronze medallist ( in 1981), European champion ( in 1979) and European silver medallist ( in 1981 and in 1983).

Clubs

Uralochka Sverdlovsk Uralochka-NTMK (russian: «Уралочка-НТМК») is a Russian women's volleyball club based in Yekaterinburg and currently plays in the Super League, the top Russian league. It was established in 1966 and is the most successful club in the ...

(1977–1982) * Medin Odessa (1982–1989) * Haukiputaan Heitto (1989–1993) * Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa (1993–1994) * Chemik Police (1994–1995) * ? (1995–2002) * Khimik Yuzhne (2002–2003)

Coach career

In 2006, Sokolovskaya was appointed head coach of Ukrainian women's volleyball club VC Jinestra (previously called Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa). She won twice the Ukrainian Cup and finished four times as runners up of the Ukrainian Super League during her six seasons as coach, before the club folded in 2012.

Honours and awards

* Merited

Master of Sports of the USSR Unified Sports Classification System of the USSR (russian: Единая Всесоюзная спортивная классификация) is a document which provided general Soviet physical education system requirements for both athletes an ...

(1980)

Player

;National team :Junior * 1979

Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship The Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship is a sport competition for national teams with players under 20 years, currently held biannually and organized by the European Volleyball Confederation, the volleyball federation from Europe. A ...

– Gold medal *

1979 Summer Universiade The 1979 Summer Universiade, also known as the X Summer Universiade, took place in Mexico City, Mexico. Sports * * * * * * * * * * Medal table {{Universiade 1979 U U U Multi-sport events in Mexico Sports competitions in Me ...

– Gold medal :Senior * 1979 European Championship – Gold medal * 1980 Olympic Games – Gold medal * 1979 European Championship – Silver medal * 1981 World Cup – Bronze medal * 1983 European Championship – Silver medal ;Club *

(champion with Uralochka Sverdlovsk in 1980–81 and 1981–82) *

(champion with Medin Odessa in 1982–83) * USSR Championship (champion with Uralochka Sverdlovsk in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982) * USSR Cup (champion with Medin Odessa in 1983) * Polish Championship (champion with Chemik Police in 1994–95) * Polish Cup (champion with Chemik Police in 1994–95)

Coach

;Club * Ukrainian Cup (champion with Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa in 2009–10 and 2010–11)

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Akhaminova, Yelena 1961 births Living people Sportspeople from Yekaterinburg Ukrainian women's volleyball players Soviet women's volleyball players Olympic volleyball players of the Soviet Union Volleyball players at the 1980 Summer Olympics Olympic gold medalists for the Soviet Union Olympic medalists in volleyball Medalists at the 1980 Summer Olympics Honoured Masters of Sport of the USSR Soviet expatriate sportspeople in Finland Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Finland Ukrainian expatriate sportspeople in Poland Volleyball coaches Universiade medalists in volleyball Universiade gold medalists for the Soviet Union K. D. Ushinsky South Ukrainian National Pedagogical University alumni