I heard that Russian cosmonaut Sergei Avdeev, before his space career, was a
good sportsman in high jump and basketball.

In less than 10 hours from now, I'll get to see him in person at a press
conference. Before I ask him the question if he was a good sportsman, I want
to be sure that he indeed did play basketball before becoming the longest
person to stay up in Space at MIR.

Is there any more info on his past sports/athlete involvements?