Alena Leuchanka ( be, Алена Сцяпанаўна Леўчанка; born April 30, 1983) is a Belarusian professional

women's basketball Women's basketball is the team sport of basketball played by women. It began being played in 1892, one year after men's basketball, at Smith College in Massachusetts. It spread across the United States, in large part via women's college compet ...

player who plays for Panathinaikos.

Biography

Prior to joining the Dream for their inaugural 2008 season, Leuchanka was a member of the

Charlotte Sting The Charlotte Sting were a Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) team based in Charlotte, North Carolina, one of the league's eight original teams. The team folded on January 3, 2007. The Sting was originally the sister organization of ...

in 2006 and

Washington Mystics The Washington Mystics are an American professional basketball team based in Washington, D.C. The Mystics compete in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) as a member club of the league's Eastern Conference. The team was founded pri ...

in 2007. She began her college career at Seminole Junior College. She also attended

West Virginia University West Virginia University (WVU) is a public land-grant research university with its main campus in Morgantown, West Virginia. Its other campuses are those of the West Virginia University Institute of Technology in Beckley, Potomac State Coll ...

after transferring from Wabash Valley Junior College. During the seasons 2011-12 and 2012-13 she was a member of the

Atlanta Dream The Atlanta Dream are an American professional basketball team based in Atlanta, playing in the Eastern Conference in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA). The team was founded for the 2008 WNBA season. The team is owned by real ...

of the WNBA in the United States and

UMMC Ekaterinburg BC Ekaterinburg (russian: БК «УГМК») is a Russian women's basketball team based in Yekaterinburg competing in the Russian Premier League, and until February 2022 in FIBA Europe's EuroLeague Women. In reaction to the 2022 Russian inv ...

in the

Russian Superleague The Russian Superleague (russian: Чемпионат России Суперлига, ''Russian Championship Superleague''), commonly abbreviated as RSL, was the highest division of the main professional ice hockey league in Russia. It was cons ...

.Player Biography
WNBA.com On September 30, 2020 Leuchanka was arrested at the

Minsk National Airport Minsk National Airport, formerly known as Minsk-2 (, ; russian: Национальный аэропорт Минск), is the main international airport in Belarus, located 42 km (26 mi) to the east of the capital Minsk, geographica ...

. She was sentenced to 15 days of arrest for her participation in the 2020 Belarusian protests against the rule of president

Alexander Lukashenko Alexander Grigoryevich Lukashenko (as transliterated from Russian; also transliterated from Belarusian as Alyaksand(a)r Ryhoravich Lukashenka;, ; rus, Александр Григорьевич Лукашенко, Aleksandr Grigoryevich Luk ...

. She was re-arrested immediately after her release on the 15th of October, for unclear reasons.

West Virginia statistics

National team

A member of the

Belarus women's national basketball team The Belarus women's national basketball represented Belarus in international women's basketball tournaments. The team is controlled by the Belarusian Basketball Federation. After the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine, the FIBA suspended Belarus fr ...

, Leuchanka competed at the

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and also known as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes from 204 Nat ...

for her country after leading the squad at the Olympic Qualifying Tournament in June 2008. She also competed at

EuroBasket Women 2007 The 2007 European Women Basketball Championship, commonly called EuroBasket Women 2007, was the 31st regional championship held by FIBA Europe. The competition was held in Italy and took place from September 24, 2007 to October 7, 2007. Russia w ...

and

EuroBasket Women 2009 The 2009 Eurobasket Women, European Women Basketball Championship, commonly called EuroBasket Women 2009, was the 32nd regional championship held by FIBA Europe. The competition was held in Latvia from June 7 to June 20, 2009. Qualified teams ...

for Belarus.

References

1983 births Living people Atlanta Dream players Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Belarusian expatriate basketball people in Poland Belarusian expatriate basketball people in Russia Belarusian expatriate basketball people in Turkey Belarusian women's basketball players Centers (basketball) Charlotte Sting players Expatriate basketball people in the United States Galatasaray S.K. (women's basketball) players Guangdong Vermilion Birds players Jiangsu Phoenix players Liaoning Flying Eagles players Olympic basketball players of Belarus Panathinaikos WBC players Seminole State College of Florida alumni Sportspeople from Gomel Undrafted Women's National Basketball Association players Wabash Valley Warriors women's basketball players Washington Mystics players {{Belarus-basketball-bio-stub