Oleg Tverdovsky

Oleg Fedorovych Tverdovsky (Russian: Олег Федорович Твердовский; born 18 May 1976) is a retired Russian professional ice hockey defenceman.\n', '

Tverdovsky was born and raised in the mining city of Donetsk, Ukraine. In his earlier years, the city had no artificial ice surfaces so his introduction to the game was through street hockey. In 1983 Tverdovsky began his interest in hockey at the city\'s only fully functioning skating arena. Though this was originally intended for figure skating, low turnout compelled city officials to create a year-round hockey school. Open tryouts were held and 7-year old Tverdovsky finally had a chance to learn the sport, but his inexperience with skating initially held him back. He recalls "I tried everything, even holding my hands on the boards, but the progress was slow." The team coach identified the problem being weakness in his ankles, and put him on…