The famous hockey player Andrey Kovalenko had many nicknames, but the most famous among them is “Russian Tank”. This nickname fully reflects his predilection for the game.
Biography
Andrey Kovalenko was born in 1970 in Balakovo (Saratov region). The family of the future famous hockey player was very ordinary. He began to play hockey from early childhood on street grounds, participated in the previously popular Golden Puck tournament. Until the age of 15, he learned the basics of the game with the famous coach Vladimir Kulakov, who recruited children to the “Romantic” sports school.
In his youth he moved to Gorky, where he was invited to study and play for Torpedo. After serving in the army, Andrei Kovalenko received an invitation to CSKA Moscow. It was in 1989, he started playing in the 4th five.
In the same 1989, Kovalenko became the champion of the country when his club won the USSR championship. True, the hockey player does not have any medals from this memorable event - then he played for the team for a too short period of time, because the award attributes were not assigned to him.
Kovalenko stayed at CSKA for three more seasons. But the financial situation of the team was getting worse, the players went abroad en masse, and the rest were not paid their salaries for several months. Despite this, Kovalenko added in every season, became an increasingly professional player. This brought its results - in 1990 he received the silver World Youth Championship. In 1992, Andrei was taken to the Olympic team.
At the games in Albertville, the hockey players played under the not entirely clear name "United Team". They did not have a flag or anthem, but they were almost completely isolated from the rest of the Olympiad participants. But this did not prevent the guys from winning confidently, and Kovalenko scored one goal and an assist - not bad at all for a beginner.
NHL career
In 1992, Kovalenko received the first invitation to the team from the US National League, It was the Quebec Nordics. Then there will be 6 more different teams, not everything will be smooth and pleasant for the Russian athlete. But everywhere Kovalenko demonstrated excellent power hockey, for which he received his most famous nickname "Russian Tank". By the way, there were other pseudonyms in his career. For example, Burlak - according to the location of his hometown, Rambo - because of its impressive dimensions (181 cm height and weight 98 kg) and others.
Having tried his hand at American teams, Kovalenko realized that this is a completely different hockey. Big money is in the first place here, so players are often faced with the fact of changes in their careers or transfer to other teams. Between the hockey players there may have been quite normal and friendly relations, but the top management often did not pay any attention to the needs or requests of the players. Kovalenko has not changed his principles and beliefs, when asked by foreign journalists about his favorite team or player in the NHL, he always answered: “CSKA will always be a team of great traditions for me, and my favorite player will be B. Mikhailov”.
Career in Russia
In 2001, Kovalenko returned to Russia and began playing for Yaroslavl Lokomotiv. With this squad, he will take first place in the Russian championship twice, the title of the best scorer and the most valuable player in the championship has become a plus. Then he will play with the Omsk team Avangard (won the European Champions Cup) and with Severstal from Cherepovets.
At the Olympics in Nagano (1998) and at the World Cup in Sweden in 2002, Kovalenko and his team won silver medals. In 2008, Russian Tank completed his playing career and began to defend the interests of hockey players, being the chairman of the trade union. Helps the development of children's hockey a lot, including in his hometown.
In 2018, Andrey Kovalenko became a deputy of the Yaroslavl Regional Duma, where he deals with sports and interaction with international organizations.
