About Heino Kruus
Heino Kruus, 85, Estonian Olympic silver medal-winning (1952) basketball player.
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60 Seconds Life Story
Heino Kruus was a towering figure in Estonian basketball who reached the pinnacle of international sport.
Heino Kruus
d. 2012
60 Seconds: Heino Kruus's Life Story
A look at the life and career of Heino Kruus, an Estonian basketball player and 1952 Olympic silver medalist.
Transcript
Heino Kruus was a towering figure in Estonian basketball who reached the pinnacle of international sport. Born in 1926, his journey began in 1945 playing for Kalev Tallinn. He soon demonstrated his talent across the Soviet Union League, winning gold with the University of Tartu in 1949. The highlight of his illustrious career arrived in 1952 at the Helsinki Summer Olympics. Competing for the Soviet Union, he played in all eight matches to secure an Olympic silver medal. Beyond his court achievements, Kruus was honored with the Order of the White Star in 2001. In 2010, he earned a well-deserved place in the Hall of Fame of Estonian basketball. Heino Kruus passed away in 2012 at the age of eighty-five, leaving behind a legacy of sporting excellence.
Play the illustrated life story above, or read the full biography on this page.
Visual credits: Generated illustration by The Deaths Archive (Generated illustration, not a photograph) · originally posted to Flickr as Tallinn bascetball at night, Estonia (CC BY 2.0) · la84foundation.org (Public domain) · Photo taken in a public place, where the trophy was displayed. (CC BY-SA 3.0) · Generated illustration by The Deaths Archive (Generated illustration, not a photograph)
An illustrated presentation assembled inside the archive from the approved script and the credited images: narration, scene transitions and captions. Caption timing is estimated from the narration.
Narrated illustration. Images are sourced and credited; they are not presented as authenticated photographs.
Full Biography
|Heino Kruus (30 September 1926 in Tallinn – 24 June 2012) was an Estonian basketball player (186 cm) who competed for the Soviet Union in the 1952 Summer Olympics. He trained at VSS Kalev in Tallinn
He was a member of the Soviet team, which won the silver medal. He played in all eight matches. Elected to the Hall of fame of Estonian basketball in 2010.
Club career
Started playing basketball in 1945 as a member of Kalev Tallinn. With the team of the Kalev Tallinn he won a bronze medal (1945), with the team of the University of Tartu he won a gold medal (1949) and a silver medal (1950) of Soviet Union League Championship.
Achievements
National team
Club
- Soviet Union League Championship: 1949
- Estonian SSR Championship: 1946, 1947, 1949, 1954, 1955
Orders
Content from Wikipedia — licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0
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Sources
- Wikipedia
- https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Heino_Kruus
- CC BY-SA 4.0
- Sep 26, 2026
- View article
- Sep 26, 2026
People who died on June 24
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