3×3 basketball star Lasmanis and his sister continue to grow family’s Olympic legacy
PARIS (France) – Karlis Lasmanis, Latvia’s 3×3 gold medal hero in Tokyo, was born in 1994 and smack bang in the middle of the Barcelona and Atlanta Olympics, where his father competed as a rower.
The Olympics are seeped into Lasmanis, who along with his partner-in-crime Nauris Lasmanis will be eying a second straight gold medal – a feat only achieved by one other athlete in the small Baltic country’s history.
And he will be joined in Paris by his younger sister, Ruta, who has dreams of medaling in the triple jump.
The siblings continue to burnish the family’s Olympic legacy having followed in the footsteps of their father, Ugis.
Lasmanis might have been too young to watch him represent Latvia with pride, but he grew up hearing the legendary stories of his personal hero.
“He told me a lot of stories but one stood out that was incredible,” Lasmanis once recalled. “Before an Olympics, he had a bad injury and needed surgery in the lower back. But he fought on for the Olympics, which was amazing.
“He always shared me stories of how intense the training camps were and how to prepare your body.”
As he developed into a 3×3 superhero, affectionately known as ‘Batman’, Lasmanis became an Olympic legend in his own right after leading Latvia to a historic gold medal in Tokyo.
Moments before the unforgettable final against Russian Olympic Committee, Lasmanis roared and posed like a sumo wrestler in the player’s tunnel in a bid to pump up his team.
But Latvia appeared in serious trouble against upstart ROC, riding high after shocking favorite Serbia in the semis, when Edgars Krumins suffered an ankle injury.
They turned to the reassuring presence of Lasmanis, who put on the cape and drilled a two-pointer from the left side to deliver Latvia a triumph for the ages.
The 30-year-old Lasmanis remains a feared 3×3 player and he will aim to stamp himself as one of the urban game’s greatest ever players in Paris.
Known for his incredible aerial ability – he is also famously referred to as ‘Flight KLM’ – it is little wonder the 6ft.7in (2m) Lasmanis has a younger sister similarly blessed with similar jaw-dropping athleticism.
In awe of her brother’s deeds in Tokyo, Ruta has long dreamed of completing the family’s Olympic trifecta. The 23-year-old gets her chance and will be competing at her first Olympics in Paris.
Ruta, who is part of Texas Tech’s track and field program, will enter in strong form having taken out the triple jump at the NCAA Indoor Championships earlier this year.
With the siblings set to shine in Paris, the Lasmanis family are becoming something like Latvian Olympic royalty.
FIBA
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