Boris Kristancic, Olympic basketball player & coach, Died at 82

  Dead Famous

Boris Kristančič was born on November 21, 1932, and died on October 29, 2015.

He was a Slovenian basketball player and coach.

In 2001, he received the Order of Freedom of the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: Častni znak svobode RS) with the following justification: ” the life jubilee of fifty years working in the field of Slovenian sport, especially for merits in the development of basketball “.

Boris spent most of his career in Olimpija Ljubljana in some cases, both simultaneously as a player and as a coach.

Due to Boris extensively assistance, the “Zmaji” celebrated the five of the six championship titles that they won in the framework of the Basketball League of the United Yugoslavia.

The Yugoslav national basketball team has performed hundreds of times from 1954 to 1960,

Boris was also the captain of the team for six years.

He participated in the 1954 FIBA World Championship (11th) in Brazil, in two European Championships (1957 6th & 1959 9th) and in the 1960 Summer Olympics basketball tournament in Rome, Italy, where the nascent “Plavi” ranked sixth in total 16 teams.

The team won six bronze, ten silver and nine gold medals at European and World Championships and at the Olympic Games.

The Yugoslav basketball team won the gold medal at the 1970 World Championship held in Ljubljana.

The Museum and Galleries of Ljubljana, in co-operation with the Municipality of Ljubljana and the Intermedia Network production company, is now staging the exhibition “We Were the World Champions; called The never-ending ascent to the 1970 basketball gold and beyond”.

The exhibition was opened in the presence of Ljubljana’s Mayor.

Boris passed away at age 82 in October 2015.