Ninth International Conference on Sport & Society

Abstract

This paper showcases Cold War diplomacy and the use of ice hockey as an instrument of détente during Pierre E. Trudeau’s years as Canadian Prime Minister, but it also historicizes ice hockey’s link to Canadian and, albeit to a lesser extent, American national identity in the context of the Cold War. Evidence suggests that the violence integral to the game of ice hockey made it a perfect sport in both the capitalist west and the Soviet Union—a small war on ice within a much larger propaganda war. Evidence suggests that both east and west embraced ice hockey as a metaphor for larger issues involving national identity and challenges to systemic supremacy. This paper examines the history of three series played with the Soviet Union’s national team as examples of hockey diplomacy: The Summit series of 1972, the Summit series of 1974 and the 1980 Olympics at Lake Placid, New York