Sportin Latvia includes basketball, football, ice hockey, athletics (track), rugby, tennis, cycling, and others. Ice hockey is the most popular of the Latvian sports and is closely followed by basketball. Some of Latvia's most notable athletes include hockey player Sandis Ozoliņš, football player Māris Verpakovskis, Olympic javelin thrower Jānis Lūsis, two-time Olympic BMX champion Maris Strombergs, and basketball player Kristaps Porziņģis. The national sport of Latvia is ice hockey.
FC Dinamo Tbilisi is a Georgian professional football club based in Tbilisi that competes in the Erovnuli Liga, the top flight of Georgian football.
FC Dinamo Minsk is a Belarusian professional football club based in the capital city of Minsk.
WVC Dinamo Moscow is a Russian professional women's volleyball club based in Moscow which is currently playing in the Super League. It was established in 1926 and dissolved in 1992, but was reestablished in 2004. It is the most successful team in Soviet women's volleyball history with fourteen Championship titles and the most successful team in the CEV Women's Champions League history with eleven titles.
Foluke Atinuke Gunderson is an indoor volleyball player who plays as a middle blocker for Japanese club Hisamitsu Springs. Born in Canada, she represents the United States internationally. Gunderson won gold with the national team at the 2010 FIVB World Grand Prix, 2014 World Championship, the Rimini Volleyball Nations League, and the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics, silver at the 2012 London Summer Olympics, and bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games. Her 2020 Olympics win allowed her to complete the trifecta of winning an Olympic bronze, silver, and gold medal.
Angelina Grün is a German former volleyball player, who was a member of the German Women's Team at the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Australia. Grün also competed at the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, Greece.
Rosir Calderón Díaz is a Cuban-born Russian volleyball player who was a member of the Cuban women's national team that won the bronze medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics. In November 2014, she received Russian Sport citizenship. She plays for the Greek club AEK Athens of the A1 Ethniki women's volleyball league.
Ramaz Shengelia was a Georgian and Soviet football player.
Maja Ognjenović is a Serbian professional volleyball player of the Serbia women's national volleyball team. Ognjenović won gold with the national team at the 2018 World Championship, and the 2011/2019 edition of the European Championship, silver at the 2016 Rio Olympic Games, and bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Summer Olympics.
Áurea Esther "Aury" Cruz Dalmau is an indoor and beach volleyball player from Puerto Rico who currently plays for the Orlando Valkyries of the Pro Volleyball Federation. She is best known for competing for the Puerto Rico national team at the 2008 Olympic Qualification Tournament in Japan, where she was named Best Server at the event.
Dinamo-Yantar (Russian: Дина́мо-Янта́рь), formerly Dinamo (Moscow Oblast) or Dinamo (Moscow region) was a Russian women's volleyball club de jure based in Kaliningrad (de facto in Moscow), who played in the Super League, the top Russian league from 2003–04 until 2010–11.
Uralochka-NTMK is a Russian professional 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 USSR and Russian women's volleyball combined history with 25 national championship titles.
Lyudmila Stepanovna Buldakova was a Soviet and Russian volleyball player. She was a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the Soviet national team.
Dinamo Kazan is a Russian professional women's volleyball club based in Kazan. The club was founded in 2002 and plays in the super league, the top Russian league.
Football was a popular sport in the Soviet Union, with the national football championships being one of the major annual sporting events. Youth and children competitions as a regular event started after the war and each team of masters in the top two tiers were fielding its youth squad in separate competition. Women official competitions started only 1990, just before dissolution of the Soviet Union.
Nataliya Olegovna Goncharova, from 2012 to 2016 Obmochaeva, is a Russian volleyball player. She played for the Ukraine women's national volleyball team until 2010 when she became part of the Russia women's national volleyball team.
Natalia Nicolaevna Malykh is a Russian volleyball player, who plays as an opposite. She is member of the Russia women's national volleyball team and plays for Dinamo Krasnodar. Malykh was part of the Russian team which won the European Championships of 2013 and 2015. In 2017, Malykh married Ruslan Bykanov, a beach volleyball player.
Dinamo Krasnodar is a Russian professional women's volleyball club based in Krasnodar. It was founded in 1946 and plays in the super league, the top Russian league.
Ice hockey in Latvia is the most popular sport in the country. The first hockey match on Latvian soil took place on February 15, 1909, with two teams facing Union and Strēlnieka Dārzs. However, it took another 20 years to supplant the popular sport of Bandy.
The Russian Volleyball Federation is the governing body of volleyball in Russia; although existing since 1991, it is the prosecutor of the pre-existing Soviet volleyball federation.
