Today in Sports History #25 - Russia / USSR first time World Champion (March 7, 1954)

Steemians - the new edition of "Today in Sports History" is all about Ice Hockey! in 1954 Russia aka USSR or Soviet Union attended for for the first time in an international ice hockey competition - and on March 7 they even won the title and became World Champion 1954.

Scene from the 1954 finals USSR vs. Canada

This was just the beginning - thereafter "The Red Machine" won nearly every world championship and Olympic tournament between 1954 and 1991.

Following the fall of the Berlin wall and the end of the Soviet Union they still competed as the Commonwealth of Independent States in 1992 (World Championships and Winter Olympics) but since 1993 the former successful USSR team was split into local national teams for Russia, Ukraine, Belarus, Estonia, Kazakhstan, Latvia and Lithuania.

Some of the most famous players of the Soviet-Russian players that were selected to the team of the century (we talk about the 20th century here) by the International Ice Hockey Federation are:

Vladislav Tretiak (Goalie)
Vyacheslav Fetisov (defence)
Sergei Makarov (forward)

Ice Hockey in the USSR was always very popular in Russia and being successful from 1954 obviously a very strategic operation for the government to show the strength of the communist block. Still one of the most popular Team Sports across the world especially in North America and Scandinavia it is a bit sad that in my country Hockey suffers from lack of air time here (in my opinion). Ice Hockey in Germany is not very popular for investors still. Red Bull tried it, we will see what the future brings!