Romy Bär

Romy Bär (born 17 May 1987) is a German basketball player who currently plays for the Gisa Lions. As an almost positionless and versatile player type^[1][2] she embodies modern basketball, in the spirit of a point forward and along the boundaries of conventional statistics.^[3]

Romy Bär

Bär in October 2013
Personal information
Born	(1987-05-17) 17 May 1987 (age 37) Karl-Marx-Stadt, East Germany (now Chemnitz, Germany)
Listed height	1.87 m (6 ft 2 in)
Listed weight	75 kg (165 lb)
Career information
Playing career	2005–present
Position	Small forward/power forward
Career history
2005–2007	ChemCats Chemnitz
2007–2010	Saarlouis Royals
2010–2012	Challes-les-Eaux
2012–2014	Lyon Basket Féminin
2014–2015	Good Angels Košice
2015–2017	Cavigal Nice
2017–2018	Lattes Montpellier
2018	Southern Districts Spartans
2018–2019	Villeneuve-d’Ascq
2020–2023	Rhineland Lions
2023	BBZ Opladen
2024–	Gisa Lions
Career highlights and awards
4x Basketball-Bundesliga champion (2009, 2010) 3x BBL-Pokal winner (2008, 2009, 2010) Slovak League champion (2015) QBL Champion (2018)

Professional career

Bär, who is 1.87 m (6 ft 2 in) meter tall and mainly used as a power forward, started playing basketball with the Basketgirls in Chemnitz and won the German championship with the U16 Basketgirls in Berlin in 2002. In the final, she was the most successful scorer with 24 points in a 76–72 victory against Nördlingen.

At the age of 15, Bär was already playing for Chemnitz in the 2. Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga and was promoted to the 1. Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga with the Chemcats Chemnitz in 2006. For the 2007/08 season, Bär moved to league rivals TV 1872 Saarlouis and became BBL-Pokal winner and runner-up with the Saarland team. In the 2008/09 season, she was captain and again won the cup and the German championship. For her performance during the season, she was honored as the league's player of the year at the beginning of the 2009/10 season.^[4] In the 2009/10 season, she was able to repeat the cup victory and the championship with the Saarlouis Royals. After finishing her studies in the summer of 2010 and winning five titles in three years with the Royals, Bär moved to France to play for Challes-les-Eaux.^[5] For the 2014/15 season, she and her national team colleague Katharina Fikiel moved to Slovakia to play for the first division team Good Angels Košice.^[6]

After a season in Slovakia, she returned to France and was signed by the first division team Cavigal Nice Basket in August 2015.^[7] She stayed there for two years and moved to Lattes Montpellier within the French league for the 2017/18 season and also competed with the club in the EuroLeague.^[8][9] Bär went to Brisbane, Australia, and played for the Southern District Spartans in the Queensland Basketball League (QBL) in the 2018 summer season, winning the championship title.^[10][11] In the 2018/19 season, she played for Villeneuve-d’Ascq in France.^[12]

In the summer of 2020, she returned to Germany and accepted an offer from the second division club RheinLand Lions.^[13] The club from Bergisch Gladbach, in which she played for, was promoted to the Bundesliga and became German runner-up in 2022. In January 2023, the club declared insolvency, and Bär moved to the second division club BBZ Opladen.^[14]

Bär became a mother and took a break in the 2023/24 season and in May 2024, the Bundesliga club Gisa Lions announced they had signed her.^[15]

National team career

Bär played for all of the youth national teams and was called up to the senior national team in 2008. She played her first international match against Belgium in the preparation match for the additional qualifying round for the European Championship. In her first competitive game on 9 January 2009 in Kyiv, she scored 21 points in a 47–73 loss to Ukraine.^[16]

Awards and honors

• Saar Sportsperson of the Year (2): 2008 (team), 2009 (Saar Sportswoman of the Year)
• DBBL Player of the Year of the 2009/10 season
• Rheinisch-Bergischer Kreis Sportswomen of the Year 2021 (team)^[17]

Personal life

Bär's partner is former American basketball player Ambrosia Anderson, who last played for BBZ Opladen (2021/22),^[18] they both played together in Nice and Australia.

References

1. "LFB - Transferts : Romy BÄR en direction de Villeneuve d'Ascq". Parlons Basket (in French). June 6, 2018. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
2. "Nächstes Aushängeschild für den Standort Rheinland!". Damen Basketball Bundesliga (in German). August 20, 2020. Retrieved January 6, 2023.
3. "The Year of the Triple-Double in the WNBA". WNBA. Retrieved December 31, 2022.
4. "Infos zu Romy Bär". informationen-marburg.de. Archived from the original on January 24, 2015. Retrieved January 23, 2015.
5. "SR-Online". Archived from the original on January 24, 2015.
6. "Webseite Deutscher Basketball Bund" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on January 25, 2015.
7. "Cavigal Nice Basket 06 – Club de Basket Professionnel Féminine LFB". www.cnb06.com. Retrieved January 19, 2017.
8. "Romane Bernies et Romy Baer vers Lattes Montpellier". Archived from the original on May 3, 2017.
9. "Romane Bernies et Romy Baer vers Lattes Montpellier". Archived from the original on April 24, 2018.
10. "Couriermail.com.au | Subscribe to The Courier Mail for exclusive stories". Retrieved August 21, 2020.
11. "QBL State Champions & Award Winners | QBL – Basketball QLD". Basketball QLD: QBL. Archived from the original on April 19, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
12. "LFB – Transferts : Romy BÄR en direction de Villeneuve d'Ascq". Parlons Basket (in French). June 6, 2018. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
13. "Nächstes Aushängeschild für den Standort Rheinland!". Damen Basketball Bundesliga (in German). August 20, 2020. Retrieved August 21, 2020.
14. Grit Schneider (January 21, 2023). "Lea Wolff kehrt zurück nach Opladen, Romy Bär ab sofort ein Hawk". BBZ Opladen. Retrieved February 21, 2023.
15. "Romy Bär verstärkt den Gisa Lions MBC". Damen-Basketball-Bundesliga (in German). May 15, 2024. Retrieved May 15, 2024.
16. "Matchstatistiken des Deutschen Basketball Bundes". mahr.sb-vision.de.
17. "Sportlerehrung des RBK / KSB Rheinisch-Bergischer-Kreis e. V." Retrieved December 31, 2022.
18. F.Graf (January 15, 2023). "Comeback und Debüt – BBZ Hawks deklassieren Chemnitz" (in German). Retrieved January 15, 2023.