Inga Freidenfelds

HTML <h2><strong>No</strong><strong>8. </strong><strong>INGA FREIDENFELDS</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>6 feet 1 inch (185) Forward</strong></h2>

HTML <h2><strong>1956, 1960 Olympic Games</strong></h2>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds was born April 25th, 1935 in Riga the capital of Latvia.His family endured the invasion by the Soviet Union at the start of the Second World War, and then in turn by the Germans and towards the end of the war by the Russians again. As with many of their countrymen the Freidenfelds family fled before the Russians to Germany and to meet the advancing Allies. The refugees were placed in Displaced Persons (DP) camps while they were processed to return home or emigrate abroad. The wait could be for years. For the Freidenfelds it was to be a long five years. Inga was ten when he entered the DP camps and for the next five years he started playing many sports including volleyball, soccer, table-tennis, athletics and basketball. “But it was always basketball which interested me most,” he recalls.</p>

HTML <p>Ingamigrated to Australia with his family in November 1950 and was placed at the refugee camp in Bathurst. He went to High School in Bathurst, NSW and played basketball for the school as well as for the refugee camp team in the local basketball competition.</p>

HTML <p>Inga’s family moved to Adelaide, South Australia in May 1952 and he joined the Venta team one of the two Latvian teams playing in the Adelaide Basketball competition. “Like all immigrants we as a family were attracted to our own ethnic group for language and cultural reasons so I started playing basketball with a Latvian team,” says Inga.</p>

HTML <p>In 1953 he was promoted to the Venta first grade team which played in the A Grade. He played with Venta until 1961 when the two Latvian clubs were combined as Latvian ASK.</p>

HTML <p>In 1954at the age of nineteen he was selected for South Australia and played in the Australian Championships in Brisbane.</p>

HTML <p>After the Australian Championship in 1955 Inga was named to the 1956 Australian Basketball Olympic Squad for the Olympic Games to be held in Melbourne.</p>

HTML <p>Inga prepared for the Olympics by playing club basketball and training by “correspondence” along with the other five South Australians on the Olympic squad.</p>

HTML <p>“It must be stressed that at this time in 1955-56 every basketball player in Australia was working in their everyday jobs, bought their own equipment and paid admission fees to play games,” adds Inga.</p>

HTML <p>Inga was selected to the Australian Basketball Team for the 1956 Olympic Games. Many of the team were from NSW and South Australia and trained by “correspondence” as the team was unable to come together for training sessions.</p>

HTML <p>After arriving in Melbourne for the Olympic Games much to his surprise Inga the second youngest player on the team (aged 21) was named as captain of the Olympic Basketball Team. He remembers being totally surprised by Coach Ken Watson’s decision to appoint him captain.“In the end, the team got together only once we arrived at the Olympic Village, about a week or so before the Games. We then had training sessions twice a day and played some pre-tournament friendly-exhibition games……one against Russia which I recall as being definitely less than friendly.”</p>

HTML <p>The Opening Ceremony was special for all the athletes and no more so than for the Australian players who had left war torn Europe to make their new lives in Australia.</p>

HTML <p>“The feeling and elation at arriving at the Olympic Village, then the Opening Ceremony and the Games themselves, I cannot describe in simple words,” comments Inga.</p>

HTML <p> Inga injured his ankle in training and missed Australia’s first game of the Olympic Tournament. However the highly skilled Inga played the next six games for his country and finished as the second highest scorer on the team (15.2ppg) shooting at 46.7%, and second in rebounds (10.0pg). </p>

HTML <p>Fellow 1956 Olympian Geoff Heskett describes Inga “as a very good all-round player who gave 100% all of the time.”</p>

HTML <p>It must be remembered that at this time games were 40 minutes duration and there was no three point line, and the basketball basically resembled a large soccer ball.</p>

HTML <p>Inga was 12th overall in scoring for all teams for the Olympic Tournament. He scored over 20 points a game a number of times with his highest score being31 points against Formosa-China.</p>

HTML <p>“I particularly remember the USA players Bill Russell and Casey Jones and the amazing sheer size, bulk and clumsiness of the Latvian Janis Krumins who was playing for the Soviets,” Inga recalls.</p>

HTML <p>He adds,“A comment has to be made about the umpiring in general. It was not bad or one-sided but it was different to what we had been used to.The umpiring was strange or different to us because the umpiring in Australia was aligned more with the USA style instead of the style of the game as allowed throughout the rest of the world. This made for a much more physical game allowing a lot of pushing and shoving that would normally been called as a foul in our Australian game.”</p>

HTML <p> After the Olympics, Inga continued to represent SA up until 1961. He was named the SA “Basketball Player of the Year” in 1955, 1956, and 1959. He was also selected twice to represent SA in volleyball.</p>

HTML <p>In 1959 he was selected to represent at the Rome Olympics to be held the next year. Selection took place afterthe 1959 Australian Championships.</p>

HTML <p>“Due to the very brief preparation of the team in Melbourne in 1956 this team came together in Adelaide for three months prior to the 1960 Games,” states Inga.</p>

HTML <p>Most of the players were billeted in Adelaide and most were found day jobs while they either trained or played games in the Adelaide District Competition at night.</p>

HTML <p>The team left for Italy in July 1960 and played games in the Philippines and Rome before travelling to Bologna.</p>

HTML <p>In the 1960 Olympic Games Qualification Tournament in Bologna, Italy Inga injured his ankle early in the tournament. Unfortunately unlike in Melbourne in 1956, he was unable to recover from the injury and did not play a lot in the Olympic Tournament. This was a great blow for the Australian team as Inga had been one of the team’s main scorers in Melbourne. The team then failed to make the Olympic Finals in Rome. The team did however get the opportunity to stay in Rome during the Olympic Games and to watch most of the Games including the basketball tournament. Most of the team then returned by boat to Australia via India. Inga remembers, “Playing in the game in Bombay against a local side and the temperature was over 50 degrees Celsius.”</p>

HTML <p>In 1962 Inga retired from basketball to concentrate on family and work.In 1966 he came out of retirement to play District A grade in the Adelaide Competition when the Latvian community asked him to play under American coach Ziggi Kauls. He played in the 1966 Grand-Final against South Adelaide.</p>

HTML <p> In the late sixties and early seventies he coached the ASK women’s basketball team.</p>

HTML <p>Inga continued to support and follow basketball in his retirement.</p>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds was Australia’s first Olympic Basketball Captain. He was a leader, a passionate basketball player and sportsman, and set an example on and off the court for generations to come.</p>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds was inducted into the Basketball Australia Hall of Fame in 2007.</p>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds (9) scores against Thailand at the 1956 Olympic Games (Public Record Office, Victoria)</p>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds in Olympic uniform</p>

HTML <p>(Courtesy I. Freidenfelds)</p>

HTML <p>Inga Freidenfelds (9) scores against Formosa at the 1956 Olympic Games</p>

HTML <p>(Courtesy Public Record Office Victoria)</p>