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 a training regimen which included running on beach sand and stones barefoot.\n', ' In 1991, the system which froze the ice at his local arena became permanently broken and his amateur career in hockey was potentially over. By this time he was one of the best players, as well as the best skater on his team. "I was a defenseman all my career and I always loved rushes," he says. "It didn\'t take a lot of stickhandling for me to score lots of goals - I just skated around the opponents." This talent did not go unnoticed, as Yan Kaminsky, the coach of the Dynamo Moscow junior team at the time, noticed Tverdovsky and invited him to come to Moscow. Kamentsky soon left Dynamo and accepted a job with Krylya Sovetov, also in Moscow. His mother, Alexandra, did not want her 15-year-old son to leave home, but his father, Fedor, convinced her that it would be for the best.\n', '