Many athletes and sporting clubs have been supporting Ukraine following the Russian invasion. Dozens of Ukraine’s sports stars have shown solidarity or signed up to defend Ukraine. However, ex-Ukraine national soccer team captain Anatoliy Tymoshchuk’s lack of comment remains troubling to fans, as he continues coaching at Zenit St Petersburg. His silence raises the thorny issue of the personal politics of athletes and demands for them to respond to events outside sports.
Take the tepid reaction of North American hockey to the war. The National Hockey League (NHL) is one of the four biggest professional sports leagues in North America, with 32 teams and $5 billion in revenue anticipated for the 2021-22 season, reported Sportico.
The NHL took several days to put out a short tersely-worded release that condemned the invasion, but stressed concern for its Russian players. “We understand they and their families are being placed in an extremely difficult position,” the statement said. The statement, which referenced Ukraine just once and Russia/Russian six times, does not mention the devastation in Ukraine.
The NHL’s reaction is disappointing, but that’s perhaps because it finds itself in an uncomfortable position. On one side, the North American-Russian hockey rivalry is legendary and the League has spent years cultivating its hockey relationship with Russia. The 41 Russians currently playing in the NHL are lucrative assets: They are talented, popular and they fill arenas. On the other hand, the NHL faces enormous public pressure to condemn Russia’s brutal invasion.
The Washington Capitals have four Russians on their roster who are some of the biggest stars of the game today. The team issued its own statement to condemn Russia’s invasion “and the loss of innocent life.” The statement continued, “The Capitals also stand in full support of our Russian players and their families overseas.”
More problematic for the NHL narrative is the Capital’s Alex Ovechkin, the League’s star player and a prominent supporter of Vladimir Putin. Ovechkin doesn’t hide his admiration, and even started a movement to help get Putin re-elected. He has also supported Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Ovechkin tried to distance himself at a February 25 press conference. “I am not in politics. Like, I’m an athlete,” he said. “Please, no more war.”
One could understand Ovechkin as caught between public pressure in North America to condemn the invasion, pressure from proponents of the invasion in Russia, and family reprisals for speaking out. But any sympathy is tempered by seeing Russian missiles demolishing hospitals and homes in Ukraine. At some point, the Capitals might want to rethink their support of Ovechkin, who has publicly aligned himself with Putin.
As for other Russians in the NHL, Washington Capitals General Manager Brian MacLellan explained their silence. “They’re trying to balance out how they live their lives and what their political opinions are and the repercussions that can happen back at home,” he said.
The NHL argues that these millionaire hockey players feel threatened but Russian tennis pro Andrey Rublev was not afraid to use his platform to oppose the war at the Dubai Championships. If Ovechkin and any other Russians in the NHL truly feared for their families, they could have followed the warnings the US was giving its citizens to leave Ukraine and Russia in early February.
In Canada, the hockey picture is a little different. The NHL has had many big stars of Ukrainian Canadian heritage over the years like Dale Hawerchuk and Mike Bossy. Canada-based NHL teams showed more sensitivity to the war and displayed solidarity with Ukraine. At games in Ottawa, Winnipeg, Calgary and Edmonton, Ukrainian choirs sang the Canadian anthem in Ukrainian.
The Winnipeg Jets invited Hoosli, a Ukrainian Male Choir in Winnipeg, Canada, to sing the Canadian and Ukrainian national anthems before the March 1 NHL game to demonstrate the Jets’ solidarity with Ukraine. (Photo Credit: Facebook Tadaaki Hiruki)
Ottawa Senators owner Eugene Melnyk, 62, whose parents emigrated from Ukraine after WW2, said the team would play the Ukrainian national anthem before each of its remaining 13 home games. The team also plans to donate to humanitarian and medical aid to Ukraine. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress has worked with the Edmonton Oilers and the Calgary Flames to raise money for Ukraine.
Eugene Melnyk, 62, a Canadian businessman of Ukrainian descent, is the owner, governor and chair of the Ottawa Senators NHL hockey team. (Photo Credit: Facebook Ottawa Senators)
But should players from Russia be suspended? The majority of NHL teams and coaches say let them play. Fans don’t think Russian players should be punished.
The Edmonton Oilers hockey team showed their support for Ukraine by wearing a Ukrainian flag on their helmets. (Photo Credit: Facebook Ukrainian Canadian Committee Alberta Provincial Council)
Some Ukrainian communities like in Calgary, Canada, have been vocal about a ban.
“Why should we allow Russian players to play on our teams here in the NHL in a safe environment and earn a comfortable living, while their brothers and cousins are murdering people right now?” Calgarian Gordon Sokolon told local CTV news.
Former Czech international goaltender Dominik Hasek, whose homeland was invaded by Russian tanks in 1968, wants to see at least Ovechkin suspended from the NHL.
Hockey great Wayne Gretzky, a Canadian of mixed Slavic heritage, called for the Russian team to be cut from this summer’s 2022 men’s world junior tournament in Edmonton. Unlike NHL officials and many fans, Gretzky considered the impact on local Ukrainian communities.
“I just couldn’t relate to how we were going to welcome a country that is at war, to a city that has tons of Ukrainian family members that are still living in Ukraine,” Gretzky, who once played in Edmonton, explained his position to an Ontario radio program. “And I got some pushback from people that said, ‘Why punish the Russian kids?’”
“What about the Ukrainian kids that are being killed daily? The Ukrainian kids that are 12 or 14 years old, going to war,” Gretzky added. The International Ice Hockey Federation eventually followed other sports in banning Russian and Belarusian players and teams from all international competitions.
The Viter Ukrainian Folk Choir sang the Canadian national anthem in English and Ukrainian before the game between the Edmonton Oilers and Washington Capitals. (Photo Credit: Facebook Ukrainian Canadian Committee Alberta Provincial Council)
For now, it’s game on for the NHL which is gearing up for its playoffs. Russians can play, but will they face pushback as the destruction mounts. Will some find the courage to speak against the war? It is naïve to think that top athletes can “just play sport” in a bubble isolated from world happenings.
Top sports stars like Ovechkin have huge followings on their social media. They cultivate personal brands and endorse products. All this makes athletes public and economic figures operate from privileged positions of influence. Because some people listen to sports stars and emulate them, athletes should be accountable for their ethics to the public, just like corporations. Already the hockey equipment maker CCM has stopped using Ovechkin and other Russian players in global marketing campaigns.
The debate about the war in the North American hockey world seems to revolve around the Russian hockey players. Little has been said about the millions of Ukrainians refugees or those left behind in siege conditions. This war has forced 10 million people from their homes and changed global energy and food supply lines. There can be no fence sitters.
Scott Stinson in his March 17 article for the Whig Standard makes the point, “But as the weeks have gone by and heart-breaking and horrible stories have emerged from Ukraine’s bombed-out cities day after day, the NHL’s careful position, and the silence of its Russian players, only becomes more glaring.”
In an era of cancel culture, athlete activism and social justice, it’s time for an ethics ‘reality check’ for the NHL, its teams and fans. They must realize that, just like the old USSR, the Russian regime continues to use its athletes for propaganda, whether they want to be involved or not. And the NHL’s Russian contingent has to understand that in North America they have to be accountable for their viewpoints.
The Edmonton Oilers and their fans show support for Ukraine before the March 6 game in Edmonton, Alberta. The monitor displayed some of Alberta’s rich Ukrainian heritage – Ukrainian dance ensembles, the world’s largest pysanka statue in Vegreville, and Ukrainian historical churches. The stadium interior was lit up in yellow and blue. (Photo Credit: Facebook Tadaaki Hiruki)
Marusia Kaweski is a Canada-based author and journalist who lived and worked in Ukraine for 20 years.
Politics and current affairs writer Marusia Kaweski
