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WORLD BEATERS AT ICE HOCKEY
Czechs excel at many international sports, including tennis and speed skating, but
they are truly masters of the universe when it comes to ice hockey. Since the debut of
the annual World Hockey Championships in 1920, the Czech and Czechoslovak na-
tional teams have won gold no less than 12 times and taken home a total of 45
medals. Ice hockey plays such a role in the country's psyche that if you ask a Czech
what the most significant year was in recent history, you might not hear 1989 or 1968,
but rather 1998. That was the year the Czechs beat the Russians 1-0 for gold at the
Nagano Winter Olympics, and the country erupted in joy.
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It's not clear why Czechs are such hockey maniacs. Certainly, kids grow up playing
the game on frozen ponds around the country during the winter, but that doesn't quite
explain their world mastery. Part of the answer lies in the competitive nature of the ju-
nior leagues all the way up to the country's national hockey league, the Extraliga,
Czech players are a staple on the rosters of many teams in the North American Na-
tional Hockey League. Past greats - and still household names - include Jaromír Jágr
(b 1972), who won the Stanley Cup with Pittsburgh in 1991 and '92, and who still
plays for the Philadelphia Flyers. Dominik Hašek (b 1965), the 'Dominator', was
once regarded as the world's best goaltender after winning a Stanley Cup with the
Detroit Red Wings in 2001.
