The time legendary ice hockey player Wayne Gretzky visited the Soviet Union (PHOTOS)
Among other things, Gretzky visited Lenin’s Mausoleum and drank vodka washed down with Pepsi-Cola.
The USSR and Canada have always been bitter rivals on the ice, but this did not prevent the athletes from being friends with each other off it.
Vladislav Tretiak and Wayne Gretzky, two legends of world hockey, became close friends. In 1983, the Canadian forward visited Moscow at the invitation of the Soviet goalkeeper.
Gretzky brought almost his entire family with him: his father, mother, three brothers and his girlfriend Vicki. In addition, a film crew came to shoot the documentary ‘Champions’ about him and this visit.
The Canadian trained with local hockey players and young athletes from the CSKA school. Among them was 12-year-old Pavel Bure, who would later become famous as the ‘Russian Rocket’.
In his free time, Gretzky walked around the city and saw the sights. He was especially impressed by the changing of the guard at Lenin's Mausoleum – the hockey player went to watch it more than once, his father Walter recalled.
Of course, the Canadian also visited Tretiak. "We greeted him with bread and salt… I taught him how to drink vodka, so that it would not be difficult for someone not used to it – immediately, without breathing, wash it down with Pepsi-Cola. And that's how he liked it. We drank to hockey…" the Soviet goalie recalled.
And it was Tretiak who saw Gretzky off to the airport. They parted warmly as friends, to soon meet again on the ice as rivals.
