The Buckeye Globetrotter: Elsa Lemmilä’s Worldly Background and Ties to Central Ohio
10/27/2025 1:09:00 PM | General, Women's Basketball
Elsa Lemmilä may wear scarlet and gray on her back now, but her story goes beyond basketball and around the world before settling in Columbus.
A second year in environmental engineering, Lemmilä’s story begins in Switzerland, where she was born to an Ohioan mother and Finnish father, Jocelyn and Jari Lemmilä, alongside her older sister, Stella.
Elsa spent the first two years of her life in Switzerland, then lived in China for four years. At age six, Elsa and her family moved to her mother’s hometown of Columbus, then back to Switzerland for another five years. Elsa and her family moved to her father’s homeland of Finland when she was 12 years old, and that’s where she remained until coming to Ohio State as a freshman.
Four countries later, Elsa Lemmilä is back in Ohio, carrying with her both the basketball player and human being that her travels built.
It was in Finland that Elsa got serious about basketball, but it wasn’t just her skillset that was developed. Elsa Lemmilä’s experience playing overseas has molded her into not only a resilient center, but an adaptable and open-minded person.
Citing her frequent moving and making new friends, Elsa Lemmilä said, “I think moving so much has made me very adaptable in learning to adapt well to new situations and new lives. Getting to travel so much makes you really well-rounded, open minded, accepting of new and different cultures. You understand that not everybody is the same person and everybody comes from different backgrounds.”
Playing overseas also molded Elsa’s disposition as a basketball player, noting how she was still a teenager facing adults and seasoned professionals.
“These people – they've been playing for so many years,” Elsa Lemmilä said. “They’re older and more mature than you. If they push you over, you just have to get up and keep playing. Just keep on going, no matter what happens.”
That toughness has paid off. As a freshman, Elsa led the team in blocks with 60, ranking fourth in the Big Ten with 1.9 blocks per game, and also ranked third on the team in rebounds per game with 4.8.
Regardless of where she was living, Elsa Lemmilä made annual trips to Ohio with her family, received by large family gatherings on her mother’s side. Those annual trips established a connection and familiarity to the Columbus area, and ultimately influenced Elsa's commitment to Ohio State, alongside the size of the university and balance of academic and athletic rigor.
“I like familiar places, and all of my mom’s family lives in Ohio, so obviously I wanted to have some family close, because I’m moving all the way across the world,” Elsa Lemmilä said.
Elsa got her wish. Now every time she hits the court, she has someone in the stands to cheer her on.
“I have, every game pretty much, some family member coming to watch. It’s very nice to see them after knowing my parents don’t always get to be here and my sister doesn’t always get to be here.”
While Elsa Lemmilä is unsure what life after Ohio State will entail, whether it be grad school in the United States or professional basketball back home in Europe, her dedication to perseverance and respect for others was built miles away from Columbus and will remain long after.
“I want people to think that I’m respectful of you, of where you come from – your decisions, your life, just everything.”
