MOSCOW (Reuters) -President Vladimir Putin on Monday lauded Russian ice hockey star Alexander Ovechkin for surpassing all the sport’s other legends in a dazzling career that the Kremlin chief said was a cause for celebration for fans across Russia and the world.
Alexander Ovechkin, known in the United States as “Alex”, scored his 895th career NHL goal on Sunday to break the hallowed all-time record of Wayne Gretzky that was once considered unbeatable.
At his celebration ceremony, Ovechkin praised fans: “All of you fans, for all the world, Russia, we did it boys, we did it, it is history.”
“You have surpassed the legendary masters in the number of goals scored in the regular season matches of the National Hockey League,” Putin said in a message to Ovechkin that was published by the Kremlin on Monday.
“You have won world and national tournaments, and many other bright, unique achievements that have entered the annals of the national hockey school. Without a doubt, this achievement has become not only your personal success, but also a real celebration for fans in Russia and abroad.”
Ovechkin, 39, was born in Moscow in 1985, just six years before the Soviet Union collapsed, and began his career at the Dynamo Moscow club.
The son of a two-time women’s Olympic basketball champion and a professional footballer, Ovechkin said his love of ice hockey was nurtured by his older brother Sergei, who died following a car accident when he was 24. Ovechkin was 10 years old at the time.
His parents forced him to play in a youth hockey league game the day after Sergei died, Ovechkin said in a 2015 interview with U.S. journalist Graham Bensinger.
Ovechkin made his professional debut for Dynamo Moscow, and at age 18 he went first overall in the 2004 NHL draft to the Washington Capitals, who were coming off a disastrous 23-46 season.
Only the second Russian to go first in the draft after Ilya Kovalchuk in 2001, Ovechkin quickly became one of Russia’s most recognisable athletes, serving as an ambassador for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.
(Reporting by Reuters; Writing by Guy FaulconbridgeEditing by Andrew Osborn)
