The Cold War was an ideological struggle between two superpowers. The important part of this conflict was a sport rivalry. Politicians on the both side of the Iron Curtain used sport and sportsmen for their political goals and propaganda. They wanted to prove that their political system is better than opponent´s. According the communist ideology the victories of the Soviet hockey team proved that their system is better than the opposing one. In United States there was a similar approach. For the American political representation victories were promoting American way of life and the strength of liberal democracy. Ice-Hockey arenas became important places where ideologies were competing.

This rivalry was usually seen in diplomatic context. However, I do not want to focus on the diplomatic perspective. My goal is to use hockey players as the actors of this struggle. Very important part of my research is the analysis of the trans-group relations between players from the both side of the Iron Curtain. We can see a clear links between players from opposing blocs, who were meeting each other during the international competitions. It gives me a new perspective how to analyze sport rivalry during the Cold War.

As an example: when the Czechoslovak national team came to US, the players were seen by politicians and press as a part of the communist bloc, as ideological warriors and some kind of an enemy. According the memoirs and diaries of the players, reality was very different. Relations between players were mostly positive. They usually said that ‘they are just boys as us’. All of them loved the game and when they entered the arena, they were just playing ice-hockey and after the match could shake a hand of the opponent without ideological prejudices.

I can use transnational methods in my project to analyze the raise of ideology from the perspective of the sportsmen as the Actor rather than politician.