# Were Soviets better at ice hockey than the USA currently is at Olympic basketball? **URL:** \ **Category:** The Game Room\ **Tags:** basketball-nba, hockey-nhl, olympic-sports-track\ **Created:** [August 27, 2023, 3:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183 "2023-08-27T15:50:12Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Telemark](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/telemark/32/372_2.png) [@Telemark](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Telemark)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 6:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/21 "2023-08-28T18:29:13Z")
> [@Kropotkin](#): > > In the past (thus “long tradition”) they were often given jobs in the company town’s major industry: smelter jobs for the Trail Smoke Eaters, for example. I’m not sure how it works in hockey, but in baseball the players move teams at the whim of their organization. Local teams have little or no control over the players. And they don’t have time to work because they’re either playing, training, resting, or travelling. I think the closest true amateur leagues are the collegate summer leagues, where college players get experience playing but often stay with host families and work jobs to pay the bills. ---
**Author:** ![Kropotkin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kropotkin/32/18045_2.png) [@Kropotkin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kropotkin)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 6:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/22 "2023-08-28T18:35:30Z")
That’s my sense of it, too. ---
**Author:** ![Railer13](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/railer13/32/9742_2.png) [@Railer13](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Railer13)\ **Post date:** [August 28, 2023, 11:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/23 "2023-08-28T23:37:56Z")
IIRC, most of the Soviet hockey players were ostensibly officers in the military. In fact, the nickname of the team was the ‘Red Army’. > **[Hockey Great Slava Fetisov Featured In 'Red Army' Documentary](https://www.npr.org/2015/03/06/391149296/hockey-great-slava-fetisov-subject-of-documentary-red-army)** > > David Greene talks to Slava Fetisov about the state of hockey following worsening relations with Russia. Fetisov played for the national Red Army team whose players were in the Soviet military. ---
**Author:** ![Loach](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/loach/32/350_2.png) [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 4:07pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/24 "2023-08-29T16:07:00Z")
The gap between the original Dream Team and the rest of the world was probably bigger than the hockey gap. Now not so much. Basketball has exploded across the world and the US team plays against a lot of other NBA level professionals. They also don’t get all the players they want. It meant more to be on the Dream Team than it does now. The level of hype for that first team will never happen again. The international game is different so the NBA players have an adjustment period and they are now playing against professionals who are used to it. ---
**Author:** ![DigitalC](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ebca7d/32.png) [@DigitalC](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DigitalC)\ **Post date:** [August 29, 2023, 5:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/25 "2023-08-29T17:57:59Z")
> [@Loach](#): > > The level of hype for that first team will never happen again. It could, if we stopped sending professionals for a few decades once again. ---
**Author:** ![MaxTheVool](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/9fc29f/32.png) [@MaxTheVool](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MaxTheVool)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 4:11am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/26 "2023-08-30T04:11:11Z")
> [@EllisDee](#): > > US women’s soccer 20 years ago #2 US women’s soccer has never been anywhere near that level of dominance. Heck, their most famous victory ever was in a penalty shootout after a 0-0 match in which they were, arguably, outplayed. In fact, exactly 20 years ago, the Women’s World Cup was won by… Germany. US women’s basketball, on the other hand, have won every Olympic gold back to 1996. THAT is a dominant team. ---
**Author:** ![EllisDee](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ellisdee/32/4531_2.png) [@EllisDee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/EllisDee)\ **Post date:** [August 30, 2023, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183/27 "2023-08-30T04:22:03Z")
Yeah, my memory was way off. Germany then won the next one for good measure! My memory was that the rest of the world didn’t really play women’s soccer so the USWNT dominated, but now looking at wiki that was clearly not the case. My only explanation is that I’ve been wearing very thick rose-colored glasses because I went to high school with one of the early USWNT members, who was part of the team that won gold at the first women’s world cup. Looking more closely at wiki, seems like the USWNT has never placed worse than third since the world cup began in 1991. Until this year. Doh! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/were-soviets-better-at-ice-hockey-than-the-usa-currently-is-at-olympic-basketball/989183.md?page=1)