Sports in Russia

Ice Hockey is the most popular sport in Russia.

Over the past half century, Russia has been in the spotlight of international recognition when it comes to particular sports. During the Soviet empire, participation and domination in sports became a point of national pride. Historically in the 20th century, the Soviet Russians have dominated the international sports scene, excelling in world championships as well as the Olympic Games. Of the last 18 Olympic Games, Russia has come out as the top medal winner in 14 of those games. Additionally, Russia has never fallen below the rank of third in the world in the Olympic competitions (just recently falling below the number two spot).

One of the most famous sports in Russia is Ice Hockey. Playing at the international level, Russia is considered a major contender and many famous hockey athletes emigrate from Russia to the United States and Canada in order to play on a professional level. During the Olympic games over the past half century, the Soviet team won seven gold medals in addition to a handful of other medals. Ice Hockey was the dominant sport under the Soviet state, and most athletes who played during this era received apartments, cars, and other luxury items just for being a part of the team. While the Russian team, since the demise of the Soviet state has not done quite as well, it is still a formidable team, with 3 World Championship wins over the past 18 years.

From a young age, Russian boys are encouraged to play Ice Hockey. Long considered one of the great national pastimes of the Russian nation, ice hockey at one time allowed young men to fulfill their dreams outside of the Soviet Union, and travel to places like North America to become part of the NHL (National Hockey League) or CHL (Canadian Hockey League).

Ice hockey first came to Russia around 1932, when a group of Canadian hockey players came to the Soviet Union to play an exhibition game. The Soviet teams that played in this exhibition were originally bandy players (a sport that resembled field hockey, but played on ice). But what bandy players enjoyed about hockey was the extensive size of the arena and ice field.

Over the next several years, various attempts were made to introduce hockey to the union, but with success. A decade later, World War II would thwart the proliferation of hockey in the Soviet Union. Once the war ended, the game found popularity again and the first Russian hockey team was born. The sport received its biggest boost when in 1954, during the World Championships of hockey, Russia defeated the Canadian team in its first ever appearance at these games and they became the World Champions. The Soviet team would remain a powerhouse in the international hockey arena, winning both repeated World Championships and Olympic gold medals.

Figure Skating is also a popular Russian sport.

While hockey has been the powerhouse sport of Russia, figure skating has been its darling. Figure skating, as a sport, developed only in the last century and a half. However, skating itself has been around since ancient times, when people used blades attached to their shoes to cross frozen water surfaces for transportation. During the 19th century, however, the mode of transportation took the form of a sport when around 1860, and American by the name of Jack Haines (known as the ‘father’ of figure skating) developed skating techniques in conjunction with dance moves and music. The ‘figure’ skating term was used to describe the ‘figure eight’ type of techniques that were employed in figure skating. Jack Haines brought his ideas for the sport to Europe, and the figure skating shot to popularity in Europe and then eventually made its way back to America.

Where Russia is concerned, the sport of figure skating became almost like its national pastime, and certainly a point of great pride. From the period of 1964 to 2002, every Olympic game event in the figure skating pairs competition was won by Russian athletes. Russian skaters have won in Olympic and World Championships in the categories of pairs, ladies, men and ice dancing.

Under the Soviet Union, football (soccer) was actually a sport parallel in popularity to ice hockey. However, with the fall of the Soviet empire, football as a unified sport in the country has all but disbanded. What was once a sport that was controlled, funded and regulated by the state, once the Soviet Union dissolved, so did the sport. Each of the separate 15 republics that formed since 1992 not had their own federation for football, along with their own associations based on their republics.