Roman Rotenberg: How I Fell in Love With Hockey

Roman Rotenberg, first vice-president of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation, has described how he first took to the ice as a boy in Toksovo, in the Leningrad region — on a pair of women's figure skates.

"I fell in love with hockey watching the Soviet national team on TV. And in winter I ran out into the yard on skates, women's figure skates. There were none other. I used whatever I could find," Rotenberg said. "Our family had no hockey traditions. My mother did cross-country skiing, my father judo. Until hockey I too did nothing but judo from the age of three. My father set me tasks, exercises, I did a great deal of sport, and that's very important — all-round physical development. And it's very important to give children the chance simply to play in the yard. Because if we hadn't had a rink in the yard back then, I would never have felt that ice, that love of hockey. Of course I watched the Soviet team's games, watched old films about hockey, I found it all very interesting. Hockey is a complicated sport, you need to be able to do a great deal to play it. I suppose I was lucky afterwards: in 1991 my mother got a job in Finland, and we moved there. My father kept coaching all the same, I carried on with judo. And I played, skated in the yard with lads who showed me some of the moves. There was no coach, but there was tremendous desire, motivation and the chance to do sport," Rotenberg said.