A Triumph Over History Czechs Cherish Gold Medal Hockey Victory As Winter Games End

At last, they got out from under that long, old shadow. To celebrate, a couple of players held up a long, wide Czech flag near the goal, and the whole team huddled underneath it. This is what they always wanted. This was the day when Olympic hockey’s first Dream Tournament was won by the biggest dreamers.

The Czech Republic broke free of its hockey history this past weekend, winning its first gold medal in the sport. While other countries brought star-filled rosters, the Czechs put together a team. With superstar goalie Dominik Hasek, superstar forward Jaromir Jagr, some veterans and 11 guys who don’t even play in the NHL, they beat Russia, 1-0.

Players said it meant nothing, the fact that it came against the remnant of their oldest and most bitter rival. The world is different. Russia isn’t the old Soviet Union, the Czech Republic isn’t the old Czechoslovakia - a Soviet satellite that was dominated by its big brother in hockey, and everything else.

“It used to be a big war between us and the Russians,” said defenseman Petr Svoboda, who scored the goal at 8:08 of the third period. “It’s hard to forget. Let’s face it. I had to defect out of Czechoslovakia and leave my parents behind for five, seven years, whatever. But it’s not about that. The guys there have nothing to do with that.”

Jagr has said throughout the tournament that playing Russia is nothing special. “It might mean something to the older guys,” he said. Yet Jagr wears 68 in honor of the year Czechoslovakians stood up to Communist rule.

He grew up hearing his grandmother’s stories about his grandfather, whose farm was appropriated by the ruling party. The grandfather, also named Jaromir, was ordered to work on it without pay. He refused and was jailed. Jaromir also grew up with a picture of Ronald Reagan in his school notebook, because he liked the way Reagan stood up to Communists (Reagan read about that and once called Jagr in Pittsburgh, where he plays for the Penguins). When the subject came up here, Jagr said, “That’s enough politics.”

Or, as Hasek said, “I didn’t think about history. I just thought about our game.”

So maybe political scores weren’t settled by this game. But they must have had an impact on the national psyche. Hasek said he heard there were 50,000 to 100,000 people in Prague’s Old Town Square, watching the game on outdoor screens in the cold. There was something that made coach Ivan Hlinka cry as he sang the national anthem during the medal ceremony on the ice.

Players sang, too, during a truncated version of the old anthem - a Slovak-flavored portion was dropped when Czechoslovakia split apart in 1993.

“It’s unbelievable. I didn’t hear that song for many years. My parents still live there. I was so happy,” Svoboda said. “It was like the nicest dream you can have.”

Svoboda does not go back much. He has been home only a few times in the past eight years, he said. Everything changed for him in 1984, when he decided to defect and became a first-round draft pick of the Montreal Canadiens. He has won a Stanley Cup and has had a solid 14-year NHL career. Now a member of the Philadelphia Flyers, he lives in southern New Jersey.

But he will be a national hero for a long time in Most, his birthplace, and everywhere else in the Czech Republic. The team took a charter flight to Prague after the game, and was scheduled to receive a massive public welcome. “It will probably be the best moment ever,” said alternate captain Robert Reichel of the Islanders.

Svoboda’s goal past Mikhail Shtalenkov came off a pass from Pavel Patera and that proved enough for Hasek, who made 20 saves and allowed only six goals in the six games.

“This is the happiest day in my hockey career,” the goalie said. It was an accomplishment to make it the happiest day of his week. The Czechs had eliminated the United States in the quarterfinal and Canada in the semifinal. Those were the two teams favored to reach the final.

“I don’t think the Russians were in shape the last period,” Reichel said. Counting Sergei Fedorov, who has held out so far this season, Russia had 22 NHL players (everyone but the third-string goalie). The Czechs brought only 12 of their 23 from the NHL.

The triumph was priceless for the Czechs, who had not won a Winter Olympics gold medal since 1972. “I play for the Buffalo Sabres. I do my best for the Sabres, that’s my job. I always will do my best for the Sabres,” Hasek said. “But like I say, I don’t know if we even get bonuses, get money for the win …”

Reichel interrupted. “We don’t care about money,” he said, holding up his gold medal. “We care about this.”