Helena Sverrisdóttir (born 11 March 1988) is an Icelandic former

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. Generally considered the greatest Icelandic female basketball player of all time, she was named the Icelandic Women's Basketball Player of the Year 12 times. During her playing career, she won the Icelandic championship five times and the Slovak championship two times. Helena played

college basketball College basketball is basketball that is played by teams of Student athlete, student-athletes at universities and colleges. In the Higher education in the United States, United States, colleges and universities are governed by collegiate athle ...

for

TCU TCU may stand for: Education * Tanzania Commission for Universities, regulatory body for Universities in Tanzania * Texas Christian University, a private university in Fort Worth, Texas ** TCU Horned Frogs, the athletic programs of the school * Tok ...

where she was named the

Mountain West Conference The Mountain West Conference (MW) is a collegiate athletic conference in the Western United States, participating in NCAA Division I. Its football teams compete in the Football Bowl Subdivision (FBS). The MW officially began operations on Ja ...

Player of the Year in 2010. She played for the Iceland women's national basketball team for 21 years, becoming its all-time leader in games played in 2023.

Early life

Helena was born in

Reykjavík Reykjavík is the Capital city, capital and largest city in Iceland. It is located in southwestern Iceland on the southern shore of Faxaflói, the Faxaflói Bay. With a latitude of 64°08′ N, the city is List of northernmost items, the worl ...

, Iceland, but grew up in

Hafnarfjörður Hafnarfjörður, officially Hafnarfjarðarkaupstaður, is a port town and municipality in Iceland, located about south of Reykjavík. The municipality consists of two non-contiguous areas in the Capital Region (Iceland), Capital Region, on the s ...

. She played both basketball and

football Football is a family of team sports that involve, to varying degrees, kick (football), kicking a football (ball), ball to score a goal (sports), goal. Unqualified, football (word), the word ''football'' generally means the form of football t ...

in her youth.

Playing career

Helena first played for Haukar's senior team in 2000, at the age of 12. After winning Division I in 2002 with Haukar, Helena took the Úrvalsdeild by storm in 2002-2003, averaging 17.1 points, 9.5 rebounds and 4.3 assists. She was named the Úrvalsdeild Young Player of the Year and was widely regarded as the top prospect in the country. Despite her performance, Haukar finished last in the league and were relegated back to Division I. In 2003-2004, at the age of 16, Helena averaged a

quadruple-double In basketball, a double-double is a single-game performance in which a player accumulates ten or more in two of the following five statistical categories: point (basketball), points, rebound (basketball), rebounds, assist (basketball), assist ...

in the Icelandic Division I with 37.6 points, 13.3 rebounds, 11.6 assists and 10.2 steals. Out of the 16 games she played, she posted a quadruple-double in six of them. Her best scoring output came against Ármann/Þróttur where she scored 86 points. She played

for

from 2007 to 2011. In October 2024, she was inducted into the schools athletics Hall of Fame. Helena returned to Haukar in 2016 after 9 seasons away and helped the club achieve the best regular season record in the Úrvalsdeild kvenna. For the season she averaged 24.4 points, 13.3 rebounds and 6.8 assists, and was named the Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the Year. Helena missed most of the 2016-2017 season due to being pregnant of her first child. She returned to the floor on March 19 in a loss against

Stjarnan Ungmennafélagið Stjarnan (, ), commonly known as Stjarnan (), is an Icelandic multi-sports club specialising in handball, football, basketball, volleyball and gymnastics located in Garðabær. Basketball Men's basketball As of the 2017–2 ...

, five weeks after the birth of her daughter. On December 20, 2017, Haukar loaned Helena to Good Angels Kosice until the end of January 2018. On January 21, Helena helped the Good Angels win the Slovak Basketball Cup. On April 30, 2018, she helped Haukar to win the

national championship A national championship(s) is the top achievement for any sport or competition, contest within a league of a particular nation or nation state. The title is usually awarded by contests, ranking systems, stature, ability, etc. This determines the be ...

, their fourth championship and first one in nine years. Helena was named the Úrvalsdeild Playoffs MVP after averaging 20.2 points, 12.2 rebounds and 10.8 assists in the finals series. On May 4, Helena was named the Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the Year and to the Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team. On 16 May 2018, Helena signed with Ceglédi EKK of the Hungarian

Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A The Nemzeti Bajnokság I/A (, commonly abbreviated NB I/A) is Hungarian basketball league system, the highest level Sports league, league of club men's basketball in Hungary. Format The league comprises 14 teams. A NB I/A season is split into a l ...

. In November she left the club after a contract dispute. On 15 November 2018, Helena signed with Úrvalsdeild kvenna club Valur. On 16 February 2019, she won the Icelandic Cup after Valur defeated

in the Cup finals, 74-90. In the game, Helena had 31 points, 13 rebounds and 6 assists. On 27 April 2019, she helped Valur win its first ever national championship after beating

Keflavík Keflavík (pronounced , meaning ''Driftwood Bay'') is a town in the Reykjanes region in southwest Iceland. It is included in the municipality of Reykjanesbær whose population as of 2016 is 15,129. In 1995, Keflavík merged with nearby Njar ...

in the Úrvalsdeild finals 3-0. After the season she was named the Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the Year for the second straight year and to the Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team. Valur opened the 2019–20 season by defeating

, 105-81, in the annual Icelandic Super Cup where Helena posted 14 points, 13 rebounds and 7 assists. It was Valur's first Super Cup win and the victory made them the holders of all four major national crowns, the others being the national championship, the national cup and the league championship which is awarded for the best regular season record in the Úrvalsdeild. In December 2019, she was named the Icelandic Women's Basketball Player of the Year for the 12th time in her career. On 29 May 2020, Helena announced that she was pregnant with her second child. On 2 June 2021, she won the national championship after Valur beat Haukar 3–0 in the Úrvalsdeild finals and was named the Playoffs MVP. After the season, she was named to the Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team. On 19 June 2021, Helena signed back with her hometown team of Haukar. On 18 September 2021, she led Haukar to victory in the Icelandic Cup and was named the Cup Finals MVP after turning in 26 points, 9 rebounds and 9 assists in the 94–89 win against

Fjölnir Fjölnir ( ) is a List of legendary kings of Sweden, legendary king in Norse mythology said to have been the son of Freyr (Frey) and his consort Gerðr (Gertha). The name appears in a variety of forms, including Fiolnir, Fjölner, Fjolner, and F ...

in the Cup finals. On 30 September, she scored 32 points in the second leg of the

2021–22 EuroCup Women The 2021–22 EuroCup Women was the twentieth edition of FIBA Europe's second-tier international competition for women's basketball clubs under such name. Teams Schedule Draw The draw will take place in Freising, Germany Germany, offic ...

Qualifiers matches against Clube União Sportiva, leading Haukar to an aggregate win of 160-157 and a seat in the EuroCup regular season. On 19 March 2022, she won the Icelandic Cup again after Haukar defeated Breiðablik in the 2022 Cup Finals. On 20 September 2023, still battling with injuries, Helena was an unused substitute in Haukar's 78-77 win against Valur in the Icelandic Super Cup. On 19 November 2023, she announced her retirement from playing due to a knee injury.

TCU statistics

Source

Icelandic national team

Helena is the Icelandic women's national basketball team's allt team leader in games played, playing 81 games from 2002 to 2023.

Personal life

Helena's sister, Guðbjörg Sverrisdóttir, plays for Valur in Úrvalsdeild kvenna and was named to the 2016 Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team. She has also played for the Icelandic national team since 2014. Her brother, Kristján Leifur Sverrisson, played for

Haukar Knattspyrnufélagið Haukar (, ) is an Icelandic multi-sport club from Hafnarfjörður with divisions in Association football, Football, Haukar Handball, Handball, Basketball, Haukar RC, Rugby union, Karate, Skiing & Chess. Club history The clu ...

in Úrvalsdeild karla. Helena is married to former Icelandic national team player

Finnur Atli Magnússon Finnur Atli Magnússon (born 14 September 1985) is an Icelandic basketball player and a former member of the Icelandic men's national basketball team. He won the Icelandic championship as a member of KR in 2011, 2015 and 2019. In 2012, he was ...

with whom she has one daughter.

Awards, titles and accomplishments

Individual awards

* Icelandic Women's Basketball Player of the Year (12): 2005–2015, 2019 * Úrvalsdeild Domestic Player of the Year (6): 2005, 2006, 2007,

2016 2016 was designated as: * International Year of Pulses by the sixty-eighth session of the United Nations General Assembly. * International Year of Global Understanding (IYGU) by the International Council for Science (ICSU), the Internationa ...

2018 Events January * January 1 – Bulgaria takes over the Presidency of the Council of the European Union, after the Estonian presidency. * January 4 – SPLM-IO rebels loyal to Chan Garang Lual start a raid against Juba, capital of ...

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

* Úrvalsdeild Domestic All-First Team (7): 2005–2007, 2016, 2018, 2019, 2021 * Úrvalsdeild Playoffs MVP (4): 2007, 2018, 2019, 2021 * Úrvalsdeild Young Player of the Year : 2003 * Icelandic Cup Finals MVP (3):

2021 Like the year 2020, 2021 was also heavily defined by the COVID-19 pandemic, due to the emergence of multiple Variants of SARS-CoV-2, COVID-19 variants. The major global rollout of COVID-19 vaccines, which began at the end of 2020, continued ...

2022 The year began with another wave in the COVID-19 pandemic, with SARS-CoV-2 Omicron variant, Omicron spreading rapidly and becoming the dominant variant of the SARS-CoV-2 virus worldwide. Tracking a decrease in cases and deaths, 2022 saw ...

Player of the Year: 2010 *

All-Tournament Team (3): 2009, 2010, 2011 *

Freshman of the Year: 2008

Titles

Iceland

* Icelandic champion (5): 2006,

2007 2007 was designated as the International Heliophysical Year and the International Polar Year. Events January * January 1 **Bulgaria and Romania 2007 enlargement of the European Union, join the European Union, while Slovenia joins the Eur ...

, 2021 * Icelandic Basketball Cup (5): 2005, 2007,

2023 Catastrophic natural disasters in 2023 included the Lists of 21st-century earthquakes, 5th-deadliest earthquake of the 21st century 2023 Turkey–Syria earthquakes, striking Turkey and Syria, leaving up to 62,000 people dead; Cyclone Freddy ...

* Icelandic Super Cup (3): 2006, 2019, 2021 * Icelandic Company Cup (3): 2005, 2006, 2015 * Icelandic Division I (2): 2002, 2004

Slovenia

* Slovak champion (2): 2012, 2013 *Slovak Basketball Cup (3): 2012, 2013, 2018

Accomplishments

Úrvalsdeild The Besta deild karla () is a professional association football league in Iceland and the highest level of the Icelandic football league system. The competition was founded in 1912 as the Icelandic Championship. Because of the harsh winters in I ...

scoring champion: 2005 *

assist leader (4): 2005, 2006,

References

External links

TCU Bio
{{DEFAULTSORT:Sverrisdottir, Helena 1988 births Living people Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir TCU Horned Frogs women's basketball players Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Helena Sverrisdottir Forwards (basketball) Helena Sverrisdottir