Sergey Kovalenko-daniela_jade_

Sergei Kovalenko, a member of the Soviet basketball team, winner and medalist of world and European championships, the Olympic Games, was confirmed by the proverb that patience and work will grind everything.

The birthplace of the future center of the USSR national basketball team, Sergei Kovalenko, was the city of Lüshunkou, located in the Chinese province of Liaoning, known as Port Arthur or Dalian. There, in August 1947, a son was born into the family of a professional military man Ivan Kovalenko. Unfortunately, the athlete's biography is silent about additional details of the family's life.

Kovalenko's path to the heights of the sports Olympus was not easy. Perhaps, the post-war period and the nomadic lifestyle of the family affected, but Sergei could not boast of health, at least by external signs. A fifteen-year-old boy with a height of two meters weighed less than 60 kg. To this was added a congenital defect of the foot, due to which the leg rested only on the toe and heel. As a result, there were problems with movement.

The guy who earned a release from physical education at school was not only pitied, but openly afraid to be accepted into the sports sections - what if what happens in training, the general's anger cannot be avoided. But the general's son is not about Sergei. Kovalenko showed remarkable perseverance in realizing his dream of going in for sports. By that time, the family had settled in Tbilisi. The school physical education teacher appreciated the purposeful guy and sent him to the children's sports school. 

Here fate finally smiled at Sergey and brought him together with the coach Mikhail Ermolaevich Kekelidze. An experienced mentor discerned the data of a big player behind the anatomical absurdities of the student. And a big one in the literal sense: by the age of majority, Kovalenko added athleticism, his height was 215 cm, then he grew another couple of centimeters. In 1969, Sergei's father died, there were no relatives in Tbilisi, and the remaining family members decided to move to Kiev.

Real, "adult" basketball entered the life of Sergei Kovalenko at the age of 16. Pretty soon, the talented guy joined the youth team of the Soviet Union, and in 1964 Sergei was already the holder of the title of European champion among youth. The double took place in 1966. After the championship in Italy, the team expected to fly home. The guys were invited to an adult tournament, where in the final the boyish, in fact, team beat the national team of this country.

In 1965, a student of the Tbilisi Polytechnic Institute, Kovalenko, began to play in the GPI team organized at the university. The team was coached by the same Mikhail Kekelidze. Three years later, with the help of Sergei GPI, he returned to the top basketball league and entered the top ten teams in the country. For the center, a serious struggle unfolded between three teams - Tbilisi GPI and Dynamo and Kiev Stroitel. 

The victory was celebrated by the Ukrainian coach Volodymyr Shablinsky: as a result of negotiations, which were accompanied by family circumstances, Kovalenko moved to Kiev and became the first Stroitel player who did not come from a Ukrainian club. 

In the Ukrainian club, Sergey Kovalenko met people who were close in spirit, quickly got used to it and became one of the leading players. Shablinsky shared with Sergei the secrets of a non-standard game, fostered a basketball player who would later be called an adornment of national basketball.

Kovalenko played with Stroitel for 6 years, during this time he won 2 bronze medals of the USSR championship, and as a member of the national team won the European Championship in Naples in 1969 and the 1972 Olympics in Munich.

The famous Olympic Games were preceded by the World Championship in Yugoslavia. Coach Alexander Gomelsky then “put experience” on center Sergei Kovalenko and Vladimir Andreev, at the same time releasing them on the court in a bunch. The practice of using the tandem was subsequently effectively applied in Soviet basketball. And then the sports officials regarded the bronze medals of the tournament as a failure and quickly changed the entire coaching staff.

The Olympic Games in Germany are inscribed in golden letters in the history of Russian sports, largely due to the incredible intensity of passions and drama of the final of the basketball tournament between the national teams of the Soviet Union and the United States. The Americans approached Munich as seven-time Summer Games winners and absolute favorites. By the way, at the next 10 Olympics, the United States won 7 gold medals. But in the fall of 1972, hardly anyone expected that American hegemony would end in three seconds.

The film "Moving Up" was filmed about the events of two days in September 1972, directed by Anton Megerdichev ("Metro", "The Dark World"). The actor of the theater "School of Dramatic Art" Ivan Orlov starred in the role of Sergei Kovalenko.

The film, judging by the flurry of reviews, turned out to be as ambiguous as the circumstances in which the Soviet athletes managed to win the victory were ambiguous. Some details of the meeting of the jury of appeal, at which the fate of the gold medal was decided, was shared by Ferenc Hepp, who then headed it.

According to Hepp, it was fair to appoint a replay, but no one expected understanding from the Soviet team, and it was time to end the Games themselves. As you know, the Olympics were extended by one day due to the death of Israeli athletes. 

The issue was decided by secret ballot of five members of the jury, according to Hepp, “the Soviets won honestly,” the chairman voted for the USSR team, and what the rest did will remain in the hiding places of history.

At home, athletes were awarded an incredible prize for those times - 3,000 rubles and 300 dollars each. Sergey Kovalenko was awarded the title of international master of sports. According to some sources, the basketball player was the only one from the star team who never received the title of "Honored Master of Sports of the USSR."

Sergei Kovalenko remained somewhat in the shadow of the glory that fell on his colleagues to the team of Alexander Belov, Modestas Paulauskas, Ivan Edeshko and others. But, as the outstanding Soviet coach Alexander Gomelsky said, Kovalenko made a significant contribution to the victory and was remembered for his productive, solid game.

On the court, Sergei Kovalenko was physically harder and he moved slowly, but the athlete was good at blocks, rebounds, scored almost without misses. And to see the field, to feel a partner, Kovalenko was helped not only by the giant growth, but also by the constant analysis of the game situation, the ability to choose a position, as experts say, to share the ball in time. It is not for nothing that Sergey's work on the court was called intellectual basketball.

Despite some phlegmatism and outward calmness, Kovalenko had an inner core. In the 1974-1975 season, Sergei had a conflict with the new leadership of the "Builder". The basketball player is now said to have been disqualified for life. The punishment was removed at the request of Alexander Gomelsky, under whose leadership Kovalenko began to play at CSKA Moscow. In this club, Sergei played until the end of his career, five times won the title of champion of the Soviet Union.

There are no details about the personal life of basketball player Kovalenko. It is known that in 1972 Sergei had a daughter, Katya. The girl went to her father - at the age of 16 she had a height of 195 cm and, of course, played basketball.

At the end of his fifteen-year playing career, Sergei Kovalenko returned to Kiev, in the early 90s he worked in one of the strongest basketball clubs in the USSR and Ukraine - Kiev SKA, as a second coach. 

In the national championship, the team was in the top ten. In some sources about the history of the SKA club, the name of Sergei Kovalenko is indicated among the players who entered the site until 1985.

After the collapse of the Union and the change in the economic situation, Kovalenko worked in a construction company, where he climbed the entire career ladder - from security guard to deputy director. Then Sergey organized his own business for the wholesale of building materials.

Sergey Kovalenko died in Kiev in 2004. The cause of death of the basketball player was not reported.

1968 - Olympic bronze medal 1969 - European championship gold medal 1970 - World championship bronze medal 1972 - Olympic gold medal 1972 - international master of sports 1973 - European championship bronze medal 1974 - USSR championship bronze medal 1976,1977,1978,1979, 1980 - gold medal of the USSR championship

Medal "For Labor Distinction"

Sergey Kovalenko 's estimated Net Worth, Salary, Income, Cars, Lifestyles & many more details have been updated below.

Let's check, How Rich is Sergey Kovalenko in 2020?

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2021

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.2M in 2021. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $708.2K - $1.2M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2020

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.9M in 2020. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $667.3K - $1.3M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2019

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.9M in 2019. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $757.2K - $1.9M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2018

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.1M in 2018. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $823.5K - $1.1M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2017

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.3M in 2017. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $896.3K - $1.4M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2016

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $2M in 2016. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $836.5K - $1.5M.

Sergey Kovalenko Net Worth 2015

Sergey Kovalenko 's revenue is $1.5M in 2015. It is an approximate forecast of how rich is Sergey Kovalenko and could vary in the range between $614.6K - $1.8M.

It is an overall forecast for the net worth of Sergey Kovalenko. The evaluation covers the latest 5 years and an approximation for next year. See above to learn how much money does Sergey Kovalenko makes a year.

The range above shows an estimation based on evaluation generated by public information about sponsorships or other sources found on the internet. It's summarized data from Sergey Kovalenko's projects existing in AidWiki's repository. It's an approximation of the revenue compiled by AidWiki and may not correspond with the real amount.