Our Nikola Richterová is DEKK's communications and fundraising manager. Last week she attended IIHF World Championship in Stockholm and wrote about her (non)hockey impressions.
I travelled to Stockholm on my fourth World Championships in a row. However, this year I came with new emotions. The actual situation was the cause of it. The jerseys with the double cross were worn by players from the KHL and, on the other hand, this year we didn't see some of the expected NHL mainstays. My feelings were also influenced by the fact that our most productive player in Europe didn't play for Slovakia because of broken relations.
With all this, I got the feeling that I would have to defend my participation to some Slovaks. This also confirms how divided Slovak society is today.
Experience with Latvian fans
I came to Sweden for the games against Latvia and Finland. In the end, it became clear that those were our last performances in the whole championship.
Before the match with the Baltic rivals in maroon jerseys, our media published an interview with one of the players of this team. He stated that he has extra motivation. He saw players from the KHL in our team, to whom in his country, unlike in Slovakia, they share a uniformly negative attitude. Another reason was the media coverage of our politicians' views on the war in Ukraine. On my Instagram, I saw afterwards that many of my connections supported Latvians after these words. This was the moment that stuck with me. I felt that in 2025 it was definitely not just about hockey.
What happened after the game
One could say that the cooperation between our players in this game was what the situation is like in the country. Slovakia lost 1:5.
A lot has been written about hockey, but less people know what happened in Stockholm when the game was over. Those moments were strong for me. In my experience of the championship over the years, I have found that although people come there mainly believing that their team will win, it is also all about international cohesion and the joy of the game. The fans interact with each other.
"Do you think Fico watched today's game? I hope so," a Latvian fan pointed out to me. For many years, he considered us to be a sympathetic national team that is on the same level as they are. Now his view has changed. He was disappointed to see players from the KHL on our roster. He considered it a clear support of Russia in the war against Ukraine. Our debate continued for a long time. I mentioned that I am not okay with it neither. At the same time, I told him how polarised Slovak society is and that there is currently no topic in our nation on which we can all agree. Including the war in Ukraine. This year, these problems have also significantly affected one of the main components of our national pride - the Slovak national ice hockey team.
They came as rivals and left as friends
I was surprised how much the Latvian fans discussed our politics. I am not used to such debates at hockey championships. I had the feeling that after the talks a lot of Latvians came to believe that Slovakia is not black and white. Although at first they may have looked at us as the "enemy" team, later they went with us to a pub with a majority of Slovak fans. They were followed by more and more people in Latvian jerseys, Austrians and Finns. Debates went by the wayside here. The pub played Slovak hits that had been proven over the years, and everyone danced to them, no matter the colour of the jersey.
Fans of the opponents came up to me wondering how it was possible that we were having such a good time after a lost game. Many appreciated our temperament and the beauty of our language. In the late hours of the night, we also sang the chorus to a song that sings, "Humans aren't bad at all, it's just humanity that's awful!"
...and finally, at the end of our evening, a large number of Latvian fans left wearing Slovak jerseys, which they exchanged with their new friends.
Uniting for one clear goal
During the Slovakia game against Finland, I didn't have intense interactions with the foreign fans anymore. However, I have to admit that it was very nice for me to sit in the stadium with people wearing Slovak jerseys who are cheering for the same goal. A strong moment. I admit, it's probably also because I don't experience this as a Slovak so often during other situations.
In Stockholm I met fans from all over Slovakia. Some of them were supporters of clubs from Nitra, Michalovce, Banská Bystrica and Košice. I am a fan of Slovan Bratislava. We are great rivals in the league, but here we stand together. As we say in the DEKK Institution - we felt a common identity behind us. The Slovak one. I was thinking that I wish this would work outside of sport.
We lost, so jerseys (and cohesion) we put away
As I sat in the airport waiting for my flight home, I realised that I could only recognise the Slovaks there because of our language. We had already taken off our jerseys (and maybe even our cohesion).
Not far from us, people were waiting for a flight to Riga. A lot of Latvians who had come to Sweden to see hockey were sitting at the airport. How do I know? They didn't change their jerseys - even though they also got out of the championship just like us. It could just be a coincidence, but at that moment it was symbolic for me. More than anything, it highlighted for me the question mark about our national pride. Success in hockey is one of the few moments when we can stand together, but when hockey is over, we go back to normal. I am sure that hockey will not be enough to make Slovakia more united. However, the moments when we can stand together during an ice hockey match can be a motivation and an example that it is possible.