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

Latvia Latvia, officially the Republic of Latvia, is a country in the Baltic region of Northern Europe. It is one of the three Baltic states, along with Estonia to the north and Lithuania to the south. It borders Russia to the east and Belarus to t ...

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 (appro ...

player. Raudziņš won a gold medal at the 1935 EuroBasket competition, becoming the first European champion. He participated also at the

1936 Summer Olympics The 1936 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XI Olympiad () and officially branded as Berlin 1936, were an international multi-sport event held from 1 to 16 August 1936 in Berlin, then capital of Nazi Germany. Berlin won the bid to ...

and at the

1937 EuroBasket The 1937 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 1937, was the second FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship, held by FIBA. Eight national teams affiliated with the International Basketball Federation (FIBA) took pa ...

Career

Raudziņš was born in

Harbin Harbin, ; zh, , s=哈尔滨, t=哈爾濱, p=Hā'ěrbīn; IPA: . is the capital of Heilongjiang, China. It is the largest city of Heilongjiang, as well as being the city with the second-largest urban area, urban population (after Shenyang, Lia ...

Manchuria Manchuria is a historical region in northeast Asia encompassing the entirety of present-day northeast China and parts of the modern-day Russian Far East south of the Uda (Khabarovsk Krai), Uda River and the Tukuringra-Dzhagdy Ranges. The exact ...

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

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

his family returned to Latvia. Raudziņš studied law at the

University of Latvia University of Latvia (, shortened ''LU'') is a public research university located in Riga, Latvia. The university was established in 1919. History The University of Latvia, initially named as the Higher School of Latvia () was founded on Se ...

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 (sport), ...

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 immigrated to Germany and later to

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

where he settled in

Perth Perth () is the list of Australian capital cities, capital city of Western Australia. It is the list of cities in Australia by population, fourth-most-populous city in Australia, with a population of over 2.3 million within Greater Perth . The ...

under the name James along with his wife Erna and 4 children, and worked as an accountant. He became the 1971 WA State Chess Champion. He died in Perth on 13 December 1979. His daughter Ilze Raudziņš played basketball for the Western Australian team in the Australian championship.

References

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* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Raudzins, Dzems Latvian men's basketball players Olympic basketball players for 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