alko
Registered User
Population is about 1 300 000. That isnt not much. And with the basketball, volleyball and even soccer, it is hard to compete with other sports.
As long as you don't have dual citizenship it shouldn't be an issue as far as I know. That's the reason Olaf Kölzig was able to represent Germanythis might become an "official" Estonia thread... how is it possible that some players born outside Estonia and without any trace of Estonian origin or playing in Estonia, are eligible to play for Estonia? For example, Fabian Hast and Emil Svartbro?
Even those born in Estonia like Mark Viitanen didn't play there (according to EP) and should spend at least 1.5 years playing there, right?
I'm obviously missing something, question is what exactly
I was in Tallinn a couple years ago and asked one of my co-workers why hockey wasn't as popular in Estonia as they're surrounding by two elite and one well-known hockey country (Finland, Russia, Latvia). He said that Estonians tend to be more interested in individual sports like weightlifting, track and field, etc. and that many of them view hockey as a "Russian sport" and thus aren't very interested in it.
Apparently they have a really good young skier (Kelly Sildaru) which is a bit weird because I don't think they have any mountains. Only 16 years old she was favourite to win gold at the last Winter Olympics but had to pull out due to injury. I think the only other Estonian athletes I can remember hearing of is some guy in weightlifting competitions and the occasional track and field athlete (I vaguely remember some twin girls that were runners or something many years ago) so that guy's take checks out.
Savenkov reaching the AHL seems borderline impossible, he should be thrilled if he can actually make it in the ECHL. And they haven't but again, they still don't have and Savenkov isn't all that outstanding even for their level.Savenkov might play in the AHL, has Estonia had a player in the main feeder league of the NHL since Toivo Suursoo played in the IHL?
I dont mindI heard his father is of Ingrian Finnish descent, so he's not exactly fully Russian.