All of the biggest stories written on Latvia this week were about their chances of medaling in the Sochi 2014 Winter Olympics Hockey Tournament.The teams coach is Bob Nolan, a Canadian who's been a successful coach in the NFL for over 15 years. The Latvian team will face Switzerland in the first round, and then has a chance of playing either the Czech Republic or Sweden, so Latvia is definitely the "underdog" of the group, but that doesn't get Nolan down. "You never know. We took Finland to overtime at the world championships last year," he said. "We're a hard-working team. And now they're starting to believe. And that's a deadly combination once in a while." One of the techniques that Nolan uses to foster team unity is to stipulate that only Latvian be spoken in the locker room, other that English or Russian or another language. Nolan realizes the importance of language in bringing people closer together, and even has learned some Latvian in order to communicate to his players in their own language. Nolan's coaching is helped by Sandish Ozolinsh, a former NHL star who was convinced to come out retirement to play in Sochi. Nolan credits Ozolinsh as being a "game-changer" for the team. Although Latvia is nobody's favorite, Nolan's coaching may have them pulling out a couple of surprises.
http://abcnews.go.com/Sports/wireStory/nolan-message-latvian-hockey-team-22418790
http://www.canada.com/olympics/news/former-nhl-star-ozolinsh-leads-latvia-at-sochi-olympics
I love a good underdog story! I really think that a win for the Latvian Hockey team could certainly gain the nation international attention. I wonder how the NHL community will react to this especially Canadian fans.
ReplyDeleteI always think it is interesting to watch the political aspects of the olympics play out because rivalries can be political, and human rights often come to light for middle eastern countries and if they send female competitors etc. I also enjoy olympic hockey because most of the popular players are in the NHL.
ReplyDelete