Valeri Tikhonenko
Valery Alekseyevich Tikhonenko (Russian Валерий Алексеевич Тихоненко ); ( Born August 19, 1964 in Angren (Uzbekistan ) Soviet Union ) is a Russian basketball functionary, trainer and former Soviet - Russian players. As a player was Tikhonenko National Player of the Soviet Union and the United team at the Olympic Games, 1988 Olympic Champion, three times World Cup champions and 1985 European champions. At club level, he won three championships with Russian CSKA Moscow. As a coach, he was with the Russian national women's European Vice Champion 2009. Currently he is Director General of the Kazakh club BK Astana, which plays in the VTB United League.
Career as a player
By the end of the 1984 season Tikhonenko played in the capital of the Kazakh SSR at SKA Alma-Ata. From the legendary Soviet coach Alexander Gomelski in 1985 he was first called to CSKA Moscow to Moscow and practically in the same year to the Soviet national team. With the Soviet team in 1985 he was European champion. During his time with CSKA, he finished second three times the Soviet Championship behind Zalgiris Kaunas. Although he was drafted in 1986 by the Atlanta Hawks, he remained in the Soviet Union in 1988 and went back to his hometown club after Alma- Ata. He led the club from the second division for the third place in the championship in 1989. Simultaneously he remained on the national team and won in Seoul in 1988, the Olympic gold medal in a team with Arvydas Sabonis and Rimas Kurtinaitis. Two years later, now without Lithuanian teammates, he led the Soviet team as captain for winning the silver medals at the 1990 World Cup. After the World Cup, he spent the next three years in the Spanish league. He returned in 1993 returned to Russia. After a year at Spartak Moscow he went for three years to ZSK WWS Samara. At the conclusion of his playing career he played for three years at CSKA with whom he won three Russian championships in a row.
Career as a coach
His first coaching position was CSKA Moscow in the period from 2000 to 2002. Subsequently he made coach internships in the United States among others with the Dallas Mavericks. After returning to Russia, he was first an assistant and then head coach for the Russian club Dynamo Moscow, with whom he reached the second place in the Russian championship in 2005. He then went as a trainer to ZSK WWS to Samara, where he remained until 2009. During this time he succeeded in winning the FIBA EuroCup Challenge 2007. Parallel to his club, he took up in 2008, the Russian women's national team, which he led to second place at the European Championship 2009. In 2010 he finished his last coaching job.
Career as a functionary
In autumn 2010 Tikhonenko was in his second home, Kazakhstan offered the formation of professional clubs. As General Manager, he built on the basis of Astana Tigers on the professional club BK Astana, Kazakhstan won the Cup and the Kazakh championship in its first year of existence and achieved some notable successes in the VTB United League.
Achievements
As a player
- Olympic champion in 1988
- European Champion 1985
- World Cup runner-up (3x): 1986, 1990, 1998
- EM- Second: 1987
- EM third parties: 1989
- Russian Master (3x): 1998, 1999, 2000.
- Second in the Soviet Championship ( 3x): 1985, 1986, 1987.
- Third in the Soviet Championship: 1989.
- Third in the Russian Championship: 1995.
As a coach
- Second in the Russian Championship: 2005.
- Second in the European Women: 2009.