Elena Baranova’s basketball career started at the age of 10 in her home town of Frounze (in the south of Russia near to the Chinese border). She moved to Moscow in 1988 and since then has hard a highly decorated career on the basketball court.

She has played club basketball in her native Russia, in Italy, Turkey, Israel and with 3 WNBA teams in the USA. She has also represented the national team since 1992, winning Olympic gold in Barcelona (1992), European gold in Israel in 1991 (with the Soviet Union), European silver in France (2001) and bronze in 1995 and 1999.

		Baranova in action against Belgium

She was named MVP of the 1998 World Championship and MVP of the 2003 Euroleague Women Final Four, which she won with her club UMMC Ekaterinburg. She aslo holds single game records for the Russian national team in scoring (37 points v. Japan at the 1996 Olympics) and rebounds (21 v. Australia in the 1996 Olympics).

Coming off a hard season where she played for Ekaterinburg before going to the WNBA’s New York Liberty, the focus now is on the European Championship. It has been 12 years since Russia won a gold medal. We sat down with Elena to discuss exactly what her and her team’s goals are at the 2003 European Championship.

How are you enjoying the European Championship so far?

Baranova: Actually I really like the European Championship because I have the chance to meet a lot of girls from the other teams I have played with or against. For me it is like the Olympics because everyone is together, all teams and coaches. This Championship in Greece has been organised really well and I like having all the teams together in one hotel. Usually, if you compare with the 2001 Championship, most of the teams were in separate and small hotels, especially in the first round.

It’s great to have everybody together in a 5 star hotel by the sea. I’m really enjoying it.

Do you actually have much time to enjoy the sun and the beach here?

Baranova: Actually, some teams have had a bad experience with this before. In 1991 in Israel we all stayed in the same hotel. The Czechoslovakian team spent the first day in the sun and lost of all their games afterwards! So I’m a little scared to spend too much time in the sun and the water, because it takes all of your energy.

Are you happy with how things are going on the court, especially after your surprise defeat against Slovakia?

Baranova: I don’t think we were really ready for that game. We thought we were playing in a regular tournament, but the European Championship is not a regular tournament. Every team wants to make the Olympics and we have to forget about any matches we played before. We beat Slovakia before this Championship but now it is a new story.

Usually, every time we are successful in a tournament we lose the first game. Everybody was disappointed but I think we are on schedule! We have to wake up and play better in the next games.

Russian sports teams have a reputation for being inconsistent. Why is that?

Baranova: I think we have a small crisis in Russia in management. We have enough coaches from the USSR period, but not many managers. In the USSR ther managers were political officials and they were good, but the system is very old. There are only 1 or 2 universities in Russia where you can study sports management. This is why our sports level goes up and down.

Now we have money for sports in Russia and the new Minister for Sport is doing a lot of good things. He has to destroy the old system and build a new one for the new generation.

Have you managed to see many of the other teams in the competition?

Baranova: No, because I was in the USA. I saw club teams playing in the Euroleague Women but no national teams. I have been surprised by how good many teams there are, Belgium, Greece and Israel for example. Everybody wants to try to make the Olympics.

Do you think the field in women’s basketball is more competitive right now?

Baranova: Yes, the level of basketball in Europe is very similar in a lot of countries which reflects in the national teams. We can’t say that we can beat any other team easily, no way.

I think this is because of the European club competitions, lots of clubs want to play which is great. I would even like to see a world league, to bring Asian and Australian teams in because it is really interesting to play against them and great experience.