Laura Nicholls González (born 26 February 1989) is a former Spanish

basketball Basketball is a team sport in which two teams, most commonly of five players each, opposing one another on a rectangular Basketball court, court, compete with the primary objective of #Shooting, shooting a basketball (ball), basketball (appro ...

player. She was a regular member of the

Spain women's national basketball team The Spain women's national basketball team () represents Spain in international women's basketball competition and are regulated by the Spanish Basketball Federation, the governing body for basketball in Spain. Spain has one of the most succes ...

since 2008, having won eight medals in final tournaments.

Club career

She started playing as a child in

Cantabria Cantabria (, ; ) is an autonomous community and Provinces of Spain, province in northern Spain with Santander, Cantabria, Santander as its capital city. It is called a , a Nationalities and regions of Spain, historic community, in its current ...

before moving to

Catalonia Catalonia is an autonomous community of Spain, designated as a ''nationalities and regions of Spain, nationality'' by its Statute of Autonomy of Catalonia of 2006, Statute of Autonomy. Most of its territory (except the Val d'Aran) is situate ...

as a junior in 2004 to play at Segle XXI, a club which works in lower division developing young prospects. Her first club in the top tier of the Spanish League was Celta Vigourbán in 2007, at 18 years of age. For good performance in the season she received her first call-up with the Spanish senior team for the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. The following year she transferred to Hondarribia-Irún for one just season before signing with Rivas Ecópoolis, where she played from 2010–11 to 2013–14, winning one Spanish League in 2014 and two Spanish Cups in 2011 and 2013, and playing for four seasons in the EuroLeague Women, reaching the final in the

2011–12 EuroLeague The 2011–12 Turkish Airlines Euroleague was the 12th season of the modern era of Euroleague and the second under the title sponsorship of Turkish Airlines. Including the competition's previous incarnation as the FIBA Europe Champions Cup, th ...

edition. She played the next three seasons in three different countries: Kayseri Kaski S.K. from

Turkey Turkey, officially the Republic of Türkiye, is a country mainly located in Anatolia in West Asia, with a relatively small part called East Thrace in Southeast Europe. It borders the Black Sea to the north; Georgia (country), Georgia, Armen ...

Wisła Kraków Towarzystwo Sportowe Wisła Kraków Spółka Akcyjna, commonly referred to as Wisła Kraków (), is a Polish professional football club based in Kraków. They currently compete in the I liga, the second level of Polish football league system, ...

from

Poland Poland, officially the Republic of Poland, is a country in Central Europe. It extends from the Baltic Sea in the north to the Sudetes and Carpathian Mountains in the south, bordered by Lithuania and Russia to the northeast, Belarus and Ukrai ...

(winning the Polish League) and Virtus Eirene Ragusa from

Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...

. She went back to Spain to play for CB Perfumerías Avenida in 2017. She signed for Russian team

Nadezhda Orenburg PBK Nadezhda Orenburg () is a Russian professional women's basketball club from Orenburg founded in 1994. Nadezhda has been 3rd in the Russian Women's Basketball Premier League, Russian Premier League in 2010 and 2011, and reached the Russian Wo ...

for the 2018-19 season, winning the 2018-19 EuroCup Women. In 2019, she signed for Turkish team Fenerbahçe Öznur Kablo. In 2020, she signed with

Casademont Zaragoza Basket Zaragoza 2002 S.A.D., more commonly referred to as Basket Zaragoza and as Casademont Zaragoza for sponsorship reasons, is a professional basketball club based in Zaragoza, Spain. The team plays in the Liga ACB and the FIBA Europe Cup. ...

of La Liga Feminina.

European cups statistics

National team

In the Spanish youth teams since she was 15, she won medals in tournaments of all age groups (U-16, U-18, U-20). She made her debut with the Spanish senior team at 19, and has been in all tournaments that the team has played. She is one of the most capped players with a total of 157 caps and 4.9 PPG. She participated in two

Olympic Games The modern Olympic Games (Olympics; ) are the world's preeminent international Olympic sports, sporting events. They feature summer and winter sports competitions in which thousands of athletes from around the world participate in a Multi-s ...

, two

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game ...

and in six

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

: *

2004 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship (''youth'') * Gold medal icon

2005 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship The 2005 FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship was the 19th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-16 Championship. The city of León, in Spain, hosted the tournament. Turkey won the trophy for the second time. Poland and Belgium were relegated to Divisio ...

(''youth'') * Gold medal icon

2006 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2006 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Greece in 2006. Final ranking 1. France 2. Lithuania 3. Spain 4. Turkey 5. 6. Greece 7. Italy 8. Bulgaria 9. Russia 10. Croatia 1 ...

(''youth'') * Silver medal icon

2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship The 2007 FIBA Europe Under-18 Championship was an international basketball competition held in Spain in 2007. Final ranking 1. 2. Greece 3. Latvia 4. Lithuania 5. Spain 6. France 7. Croatia 8. Turkey 9. Germany 10. Russia ...

(''youth'') * 4th

2007 FIBA Under-19 World Championship The 2007 FIBA Under-19 World Championship (Serbian: Светско првенство до 19 година ФИБА до 19 година) was the 8th edition of the FIBA U19 World Championship. It was held in Novi Sad, Serbia from 12 to 22 July ...

(''youth'') * Silver medal icon

2009 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship The 2009 FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship was the 12th edition of the FIBA Europe Under-20 Championship. The cities of Rhodes (city), Rhodes and Ialysos, in Greece, hosted the tournament. Greece national basketball team, Greece won their second ...

(''youth'') * 5th

2008 Summer Olympics The 2008 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXIX Olympiad () and officially branded as Beijing 2008 (), were an international multisport event held from 8 to 24 August 2008, in Beijing, China. A total of 10,942 athletes fro ...

2009 Eurobasket The 2009 FIBA European Championship, commonly called FIBA EuroBasket 2009, was the 36th FIBA EuroBasket regional basketball championship held by FIBA Europe. The tournament, which was hosted by Poland, began on 7 September and concluded with the ...

2010 World Championship * 9th 2011 Eurobasket * Gold medal europe

2013 Eurobasket * Silver medal world centered-2

2014 World Championship * Bronze medal europe

2015 Eurobasket EuroBasket 2015 was the 39th edition of the EuroBasket championship that was organized by FIBA Europe. It was co-hosted by Croatia, France, Germany, and Latvia, making it the first EuroBasket held in more than one country. It started on 5 Sept ...

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

2017 Eurobasket * Bronze medal world centered-2

2018 World Championship * Gold medal europe

2019 Eurobasket

Personal life

Nicholls is of

Curaçao Curaçao, officially the Country of Curaçao, is a constituent island country within the Kingdom of the Netherlands, located in the southern Caribbean Sea (specifically the Dutch Caribbean region), about north of Venezuela. Curaçao includ ...

an descent through her paternal grandfather.

Notes

References

External links

* * * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Nicholls, Laura 1989 births Living people Abdullah Gül Üniversitesi basketball players Basketball players at the 2008 Summer Olympics Basketball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Basketball players from Cantabria Fenerbahçe women's basketball players Olympic basketball players for Spain Spanish women's basketball players Spanish women's 3x3 basketball players Sportspeople from Santander, Spain Spanish expatriate basketball people in Italy Spanish expatriate basketball people in Turkey Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic silver medalists for Spain Olympic medalists in basketball Power forwards Centers (basketball) Spanish expatriate basketball people in Poland Spanish people of Curaçao descent Spanish lesbian sportswomen LGBTQ basketball players 21st-century Spanish sportswomen