Hockey isn't a sport for women? This can be disputed not only by professional female athletes but also by the "Ustianochka" team from the Arkhangelsk region. The team members are elderly pensioners. The team consists of close friends of its captain, Valentina Fedorova. She is now officially considered the oldest hockey player in the world. In the southern part of the Arkhangelsk region, not many people live. The Ustiansky district covers an area the size of a respectable country—Cyprus, 10,000 square kilometers. But while Cyprus has a population of 1.3 million, the banks of the Ustia river are home to just 25,000. The typical landscape is endless forests and snow as white as the teeth of dental advertisement models. In the village of Bereznik, out of those 25,000, 700 people live. And among these 700 villagers, there are 12 hockey players, with an average age of 68. This is the local team, already legendary, "Ustianochka," where the world's most life-experienced hockey players play. When Ovechkin was born, the team captain, Valentina Pavlovna, was already 45 years old. She explains why she took up this sport: "Once you skate, you feel like living. You need to play, you need to move. We have three practices a week. Of course, not everyone always comes; everyone has a lot to do. I put on skates for the first time at 79. I just wanted to skate. And I manage the household all by myself. I used to have cows, now I have chickens. The kids help sometimes—I already have three children, three grandchildren, and three great-grandchildren," says the captain, fully equipped. Now Valentina Pavlovna is 83 years old. But the real star here is Maria Onolbaeva, the team coach and goalie for the Russian national team at the Vancouver Olympics. The women's team then performed at least as well as the men's—losing in the shootout for 5th place to the Swiss. When asked why she swapped Moscow for a village in the middle of the taiga, Maria replies: "At first, it was lonely, but then you realize how great it is. The grandmothers bring me everything—eggs, milk, cheese, samogon. You step outside—everything is within walking distance, beautiful nature, kind people. In the summer, you step out—there's a river, there's the forest, barbecue, sauna. It's bliss! You get used to it and realize you don't really need a big city. And no Moscow children's school would offer me conditions like these. And you can't find free ice in the city," admits the 12-time Russian champion. The hockey players confess that when they step onto the ice, it feels like they've shed a couple of decades. They head to practice—one has leg pain, another has back pain, the third has something else. But after practice, they're all healthy, all laughing, happy. They've gained strength.