Yelena Akhaminova

Yelena Sokolovskaya (née Akhaminova) (Russian: Еле́на Раби́говна Соколо́вская (Ахами́нова)) (born 5 October 1961 in Sverdlovsk) is a former volleyball female player and coach. As a player for the Soviet Union she is an Olympic gold medallist (in 1980) and European champion (in 1979).

Player career

Sokolovskaya played from 1977 until 2002 for clubs in the Russian SFSR, Ukrainian SSR, Finland, Ukraine, Poland and Europe. She won many titles including the CEV Women's Champions League, Cup Winners Cup, USSR Championship, USSR Cup, Polish Championship and Polish Cup.

She played for the Soviet Union national team at junior and senior level from 1979 to 1983, taking part of the World Championship (in 1982) and becoming Olympic champion (in 1980), World Cup bronze medallist (in 1981), European champion (in 1979) and European silver medallist (in 1981 and in 1983).

Clubs

• Uralochka Sverdlovsk (1977–1982)
• Medin Odessa (1982–1889)
•  ? (1989–1993)
• Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa (1993–1994)
• Chemik Police (1994–1995)
•  ? (1995–2002)
• Khimik Yuzhne (2002–2003)

• "Кабардинская звезда Елена Соколовская". Kabardino-Balkaria 24 (in Russian). 3 September 2016. Retrieved 27 December 2016. 
• "Profile". IOC. Retrieved 27 December 2016. 
• "Profile". sportufo.ru (in Russian). Retrieved 27 December 2016. 

Coach career

In 2006, Sokolovskaya was appointed head coach of Ukrainian women's volleyball club VC Jinestra (previously called Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa). She won twice the Ukrainian Cup and finished four times as runners up of the Ukrainian Super League during her six seasons as coach, before the club folded in 2012.

Honours and awards

• Merited Master of Sports of the USSR (1980)

Player

National team

Junior

• 1979 Women's Junior European Volleyball Championship – Gold medal
• 1979 Summer Universiade – Gold medal

Senior

• 1979 European Championship – Gold medal
• 1980 Olympic Games – Gold medal
• 1979 European Championship – Silver medal
• 1981 World Cup – Bronze medal
• 1983 European Championship – Silver medal

Club

• CEV Women's Champions League (champion with Uralochka Sverdlovsk in 1980–81 and 1981–82)
• Cup Winners Cup (champion with Medin Odessa in 1982–83)
• USSR Championship (champion with Uralochka Sverdlovsk in 1978, 1979, 1980, 1981 and 1982)
• USSR Cup (champion with Medin Odessa in 1983)
• Polish Championship (champion with Chemik Police in 1994–95)
• Polish Cup (champion with Chemik Police in 1994–95)

Coach

Club

• Ukrainian Cup (champion with Dinamo-Jinestra Odessa in 2009–10 and 2010–11)