Helen Luz

rdf:langString Helen Luz

rdf:langString Helen Cristina Santos Luz

rdf:langString Helen Cristina Santos Luz

rdf:langString Araçatuba, Brazil

rdf:langString Brazilian

rdf:langString Americana

rdf:langString Helen Cristina Santos Luz (born November 23, 1972 in Araçatuba, Brazil) is a retired Brazilian professional basketball player. A starting guard on the great Brazilian teams of the 1990s and early 2000s, she was world champion in the 1994 FIBA World Championship for Women and bronze medallist at the 2000 Summer Olympics. Luz also played for the Washington Mystics in the Women's National Basketball Association (WNBA) in 2001–2003, and in the Spanish Liga Femenina for Zaragoza (2003–2004), Barcelona (2004–2006), Rivas (2006–2007), Cadi La Seu (2007–2008), and Hondarribia-Irun (2008–2010). She finished her career in one final season with the Brazilian team Americana, in São Paulo State, announcing her retirement at the end of February 2011. Since retiring, Helen has become a commentator on SporTV, opened (with her sisters) a social project for teaching basketball to children in Louveira, and begun a regular blog. [1] In addition, she told interviewers that she hoped to become a mother, and on November 21, 2012, she and her husband Octavio welcomed into the world their son Pedro Lafiaccola Luz. Most recently she has become vice president of the Liga Basquete Feminino (the Women's Basketball League of Brazil), and has been invited to join the Commission for Women in Sport set up by the Brazilian Olympic Committee. She is sister to three other basketballers, Silvia, Cínthia and Rafael.