80-year-old Valentina Fyodorova is the oldest player and captain of HK Ustyanochka in northwest Russia. She started ice hockey just one year ago.
photo: Evgenia Novozhenina / Reuters
In Russia, an old hockey song states that hockey is the sport for the brave-hearted. Valentina Fyodorova, even though she may not look like your prototypical hockey player, was brave enough to start playing the sport.
Fyodorova recently celebrated her 80th birthday and is likely the oldest female hockey player in the vast country. At her old house she may look like an ordinary, self-catering grandmother in rural Russia – until she hits the ice. Why keep in shape with pilates or yoga if you can play ice hockey?
One day Fyodorova and her friends kept themselves in shape at the gym next to the local ice rink. When she spotted a group of children on the ice, she was determined to give it a try herself. The only issue: she had never shot a puck before, neither had she ever skated on ice. Eleven grandmothers with little to no experience came to the first ice practice.
“It was a little scary at first, but when we started to play we forgot everything,” Fyodorova told Reuters. “We forgot our fear and that we are old.”
One of her teammates, Nina Volyuzhskaya, usually brought the grandchildren to the rink and knew hockey from watching it on TV. But just skating in a circle was boring for her, as she told a newspaper reporter. But with a stick and a puck everything changes. She thinks more women should play ice hockey in Russia, no matter which age, as she told Rossiskaya Gazeta:
Fyodorova recently celebrated her 80th birthday and is likely the oldest female hockey player in the vast country. At her old house she may look like an ordinary, self-catering grandmother in rural Russia – until she hits the ice. Why keep in shape with pilates or yoga if you can play ice hockey?
One day Fyodorova and her friends kept themselves in shape at the gym next to the local ice rink. When she spotted a group of children on the ice, she was determined to give it a try herself. The only issue: she had never shot a puck before, neither had she ever skated on ice. Eleven grandmothers with little to no experience came to the first ice practice.
“It was a little scary at first, but when we started to play we forgot everything,” Fyodorova told Reuters. “We forgot our fear and that we are old.”
One of her teammates, Nina Volyuzhskaya, usually brought the grandchildren to the rink and knew hockey from watching it on TV. But just skating in a circle was boring for her, as she told a newspaper reporter. But with a stick and a puck everything changes. She thinks more women should play ice hockey in Russia, no matter which age, as she told Rossiskaya Gazeta:
To all women I advise: play hockey if there is a possibility. It’s never too late to begin – look at us!
Fyodorova is the good soul of her village. For a long time she had been the school principal and still chairs the village council beside doing sports, taking care of her garden and her hens. Now she is watched herself by spectators on the seats – many of them relatives.
Fyodorova was visited by the news agency Reuters, which also did the video further below. And in the meantime she has become the captain and oldest member of Ustyanochka, a team of women mostly in their 50s and 60s who keep themselves in shape in the gym and on the ice, where she proudly wears the jersey with the number 80.
All players wear their age and their name on the back of their jerseys. In a report on Russian Channel 1, the team was nicknamed the team of babushkas – grandmothers in Russian.
“We are old people. We are not embarrassed to show our age. Let everybody see it,” she said.
The team comes from the village of Bereznik. Ustyanochka is a diminutive form for women from the Ustyanski district or Ustyan river, located in the region of Arkhangelsk in northwest Russia. That’s where the small but modern ice rink is located that also has an amateur men’s team in the Night Hockey League.
Fyodorova may be a bit slower than the others, but after all she already has two daughters, one son and three grandchildren watching her from the stands. And she already has three great grandchildren. But most important is anyway to enjoy the camaraderie with her friends and teammates. Many of them went to her school as did a local businessman who sponsored the jerseys.
Now Fyodorova and her teammates are on the ice three times a week, 90 minutes each time, and still go to the gym. “You’re like professionals,” says a TV reporter visiting the team in the dressing room after hearing that. “No, it’s normal,” a team member replies.
Fyodorova was visited by the news agency Reuters, which also did the video further below. And in the meantime she has become the captain and oldest member of Ustyanochka, a team of women mostly in their 50s and 60s who keep themselves in shape in the gym and on the ice, where she proudly wears the jersey with the number 80.
All players wear their age and their name on the back of their jerseys. In a report on Russian Channel 1, the team was nicknamed the team of babushkas – grandmothers in Russian.
“We are old people. We are not embarrassed to show our age. Let everybody see it,” she said.
The team comes from the village of Bereznik. Ustyanochka is a diminutive form for women from the Ustyanski district or Ustyan river, located in the region of Arkhangelsk in northwest Russia. That’s where the small but modern ice rink is located that also has an amateur men’s team in the Night Hockey League.
Fyodorova may be a bit slower than the others, but after all she already has two daughters, one son and three grandchildren watching her from the stands. And she already has three great grandchildren. But most important is anyway to enjoy the camaraderie with her friends and teammates. Many of them went to her school as did a local businessman who sponsored the jerseys.
Now Fyodorova and her teammates are on the ice three times a week, 90 minutes each time, and still go to the gym. “You’re like professionals,” says a TV reporter visiting the team in the dressing room after hearing that. “No, it’s normal,” a team member replies.
80-year-old Russian grandmother laces up her hockey skates
At 80-years-old, Valentina Fyodorova is the captain and oldest member of "Ustyanochka," a team composed mostly of women in their fifties and sixties who train three times a week in the gym and on the ice. Video by Reuters
In the beginning Fyodorova was scared she could break a bone. Luckily it didn’t happen. Instead she has become more confident through ice hockey the more she has practised the sport.
The team is coached by former Russian national team goalie Maria Onolbayeva, who played in the 2010 Olympics and in several Women’s World Championships. “She leads by example. By skating and playing hockey, she shows that even at that age, you can do anything,” the 41-year-old coach said about her oldest player. Onolbayeva herself is younger than any of the players – the youngest is 52.
Normally Onolbayeva is a youth coach. She coaches the class of 2013 and is a goaltending coach for a teenage group. Her task with the team of grandmas is different, but she takes it seriously and screams directions across the ice in the team’s first hockey game. And she believes in the team: “Because if persons have great desire, they will succeed in everything, you just need to help them.”
“Ras, dva, tri!” – one, two, three – the players scream before the first game against local women – younger but with no previous hockey experience – who accepted the challenge. It’s a dream come true to get their first opponent and more may be yet to come.
The team is coached by former Russian national team goalie Maria Onolbayeva, who played in the 2010 Olympics and in several Women’s World Championships. “She leads by example. By skating and playing hockey, she shows that even at that age, you can do anything,” the 41-year-old coach said about her oldest player. Onolbayeva herself is younger than any of the players – the youngest is 52.
Normally Onolbayeva is a youth coach. She coaches the class of 2013 and is a goaltending coach for a teenage group. Her task with the team of grandmas is different, but she takes it seriously and screams directions across the ice in the team’s first hockey game. And she believes in the team: “Because if persons have great desire, they will succeed in everything, you just need to help them.”
“Ras, dva, tri!” – one, two, three – the players scream before the first game against local women – younger but with no previous hockey experience – who accepted the challenge. It’s a dream come true to get their first opponent and more may be yet to come.
It’s such an adrenaline rush. After playing on the ice, you feel like you have so much more energy. You feel lighter. You don’t feel those 80 years at all.
“That’s why I will practise hockey for as long as I can, and the girls too,” Fyodorova adds. “We will skate and exercise.”
And if you haven’t seen enough of Fyodorova and “her girls”, below is another video about the team in Russian language from Channel 1.
And if you haven’t seen enough of Fyodorova and “her girls”, below is another video about the team in Russian language from Channel 1.