Tretiak grew up in a Soviet family, with his parents being from Sumy, Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. His father served 37 years as a military pilot, and his mother was a physical education teacher. Although he initially followed his brother as a swimmer, as a child Tretiak excelled at many sports, and is remembered for his ambition to master all of them. However, like many children of his generation, he loved hockey, and at age 11 entered the Children and Youth Sports School of the Central Sports Club of the Army (known by its abbreviation CSKA). His first trainer was Vitaly Erfilov. He began playing goaltender when he saw that no one else had the desire or courage to play the position.\n', '

Despite Tretiak not playing his first hockey game until the age of eleven (1963), he was well known in the USSR by 1971 (aged 19), when he was named to the Soviet Ice Hockey League\'s First All-Star Team, while playing for the powerhouse Red Army team, CSKA Moscow. He also played well in the 1972 Winter Olympics, in which the Soviets took the gold medal.\n', '

Tretiak became internationally famous after his outstanding performance in the Summit Series in 1972, when he helped surprise the world, including the Canadian team, en route to a narrow loss to the Canadians. A famous story was told of how Canadian scouts seriously underestimated his ability prior to the series; they witnessed him let in eight goals on a particular night, not knowing that he had been married the previous evening (and most of the team had been in attendance). Of the entire Soviet roster, Canadian players and fans held Tretiak in the highest regard and respect and Tretiak was one of the most famous players of the Series along with Phil Esposito, Paul Henderson, and Valeri Kharlamov. As a result of Tretiak\'s stellar performance, many NHL teams wanted to draft him – Montreal ultimately did, in 1983 – and Tretiak was willing, but the move was blocked by the Soviet government.\n', '

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