Lady With A Puck

Originally Russian article published in Takie Dela
Text and photos by Anna Popova

For over five years, there’s been a women’s hockey team in the town of Velsk, Arkhangelsk Oblast. It’s called Velchanka, and its players are between 55 and 84. Three times a week they step out onto the ice to conquer their fears – and to upend the cliché that all elderly women do in retirement is knit.

“Sometimes,” says Margarita Kress, a resident of the settlement of Kuloy, “you’re traveling here and there and thinking: ‘My God, I’m so tired.’ But then, as soon as you step on the ice, poof – where’d the fatigue go? You see the puck, grab your stick, and take off. No fatigue whatsoever. Now that’s happiness.”