See You at the 2000 Olympics!

Ukraine’s national ice hockey team will be playing at the 2002 winter Olympic Games in Salt Lake City. Our squad won this privilege, coming off third (after Germany and Belarus) in Olympic qualifier tournament which ended the Sunday before last in the capital of Norway. The Ukrainian hockey players drew a 2:2 game with the Belarus (Vadym Shakhraichuk scored twice for Ukraine), defeated the Norwegians 5:1 (with Dmytro Markovsky, Oleksandr Matviychuk, Oleh Synkov scoring once, and Valery Shyriayev twice), and lost to the national team of Germany 1 to 3 (the goal for Ukraine was hit home by Kostiantyn Kasianchuk).

The first match against Belarus, the tournament favorite, was the most important in psychological terms because Ukrainian players had suffered resounding defeats at the hands of the Belarus 1:6 and 3:7 at the two previous world championships. This time our boys were at the best of their moral strength and willpower: having conceded two goals as early as in the second minute, they managed to turn the match around and gain a very important point.

The second match against Norway was crucial for our team because a victory would have given the Ukrainians the right to participate in the Olympics. The host team held out only in the first period, then our guys dominated, winning a convincing victory. This match saw a spectacular show of the immortal Valery Shyriayev, 37, who became world champion as early as 1989 as part of the USSR national team.

The last-round game against the German team could not change the lineup, for both teams had already secured themselves an Olympic berth. It should be noted that Ukraine failed to field its full-strength team because those who play in North American tight-scheduled championships could not attend this competition.

Now ice hockey is the fourth Ukrainian team sport (after basketball, volleyball, and water polo) to be represented at the Olympic Games.