The Olympic champion, two-time world ice hockey champion in the USSR national team Viktor Shuvalov passed away. This was announced on Monday, April 19, by the press service of the Russian Ice Hockey Federation.
It is specified that the athlete was 97 years old.
“We express our condolences to the family and friends of Viktor Grigorievich, to everyone who knew him and worked with the pioneer of domestic hockey,” the publication on the organization’s official website says.
Shuvalov was born in 1923. Throughout his sports career, he played for the teams “Dzerzhinets”, Air Force MVO, CSKA and SKVO. In 1954 he took part in the first ice hockey world championship for the USSR national team. Two years later, he received the title of Olympic champion after the competition in Cortina d’Ampezzo in Italy.
Shuvalov is the owner of two gold medals at the World Championships (1954, 1956), a three-time winner of the European Championship (1954, 1955, 1956) and a five-time champion of the USSR (1951, 1952, 1953, 1955, 1956).
The hockey player was forced to sell his Olympic medal in the 90s, but later the award was discovered in the United States and bought out. In 2014, Shuvalov was awarded a medal by Russian President Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin.