61 Siberian Hockey

Сибирь хоккея

Omsk |

Russia

Russian

Behind the scenes

Through this text, I wanted to capture the emotions associated with professional sport and the sense of unity and shared experience it can create among people.

Ice hockey naturally came to mind: a sport that is both highly physical and deeply collective, widely present in cold regions such as Canada, Northern Europe, and Russia.

The text imagines a game in Siberia, in Omsk, where the local team Avangard faces Ak Bars Kazan.

In these cities shaped by harsh winters, the warmth of the crowd contrasts with the cold outside, and the ice becomes a place of shared passion, driven by effort, self-transcendence, and team spirit.

Echoes of the world

The title Сибирь хоккея (Sibir hockeya) literally means “the Siberia of hockey.” I chose it as much for its meaning as for its sound.

Сибирь (Sibir) has, to my ear, a soft and almost mysterious quality, as if one were trying to tame this vast Asian region associated with extreme winters and endless landscapes. In Russian, the r is lightly rolled, and the final soft sign softens the preceding consonant, giving the word a smooth resonance.

By contrast, хоккей (hockey) was borrowed from English. In Russian, it begins with a slightly harsher breath sound, similar to the ch in the Scottish “loch,” giving the word a stronger, more rugged feel.

Together, they create, to the ear, a blend of softness and roughness that the Russian language can convey.