Hockey political super series / day

Following last week’s official statements issued by US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin’s telephone conversations, the leaders of both countries also discussed opportunities to hold the North American National Hockey League (NHL) and the Russian Continental Hockey League (KHL). Or, in other words, to return to the so -called hockey diplomacy today. It did not play a small role in the Cold War, both in the Normalization of the Western and the then USSR relations, as well as in the polishing of the image of the Soviet Empire in North America.

Attempts to find at least some common denominators among openly hostile countries have been experienced before. For example, the competition took place between East Germany and West Germany for different sports or clubs. However, in terms of meanings, sculptures, caused by the excitement and the involvement of the highest political leadership of the countries, it was not comparable to the time of hockey diplomacy, or super series between Canada and the USSR hockey players.

Whether a similar result could be an attempt to address political dialogue today, it is doubtful, but it is worth looking back at history.

Pingpong diplomacy

Another exception, and essentially the foresight of hockey diplomacy, can be called the US and China Ping Pong, or Table Tennis diplomacy in 1971. This process began due to accidental coincidence. In 1971, the World Table Tennis Championship was held in the Japanese city of Nagoy, whose top favorite was traditionally the Communist China team. In this Asian superpower, table tennis is extremely popular, has always been considered one of the national sports, and for this reason, Chinese athletes were and are still the main favorites of all international competitions. They also acquitted this status in Nagoya, gaining medals in all seven World Championship disciplines, four of them gold.