1998-2010 Belarussian Hockey Pins

In December of 1991, the world watched in awe as the former Soviet Union dissolved into fifteen independent countries. This historic event had a tremendous impact on Olympic hockey. Prior to the Albertville, France Winter Olympics in 1992, the national hockey team of the Soviet Union was the most dominant team of all time in international play. The Soviets won Olympic gold in 1956, 1964, 1968, 1972, 1976, 1984 and 1988. In short, the Soviet national hockey team ruled Olympic hockey for decades. In 1992, the Soviet team competed as the "Unified Team" and again won the Olympic hockey gold medal . . . for the last time. From 1956 until 1994, the only other nation to win Olympic gold was the United States in 1960 and 1980 (which further explains why the U.S. victory at Lake Placid was hailed at the "Miracle on Ice"). After 1992, without the dominant Soviets in the way, Sweden (1994, 2006), Canada (2002, 2010) and the Czech Republic (1998) have each won Olympic gold.
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Beginning in 1994, the former Soviet republic nations began appearing on their own at the Winter Olympics, and in 1998 Belarus made its first appearance as an independent nation in the hockey tournament--and they did so in style, from a pin standpoint, bringing with them an NOC hockey pin depicting the Nagano Olympic hockey pictogram, which measures 19mm in diameter. Belarus again participated in the Olympic hockey tournament in Salt Lake City in 2002 and again brought a dated NOC hockey pin to the Winter Games (along with their NOC team pin, also shown below). Their 2002 hockey pin measures 22mm tall by 27mm wide.

Belarus did not qualify for the Olympic hockey tournament for the 2006 Winter Games in Torino, Italy, but returned to the ice for the 2010 Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, and returned with a vengeance from an Olympic pin standpoint. In addition to the Belarus 2010 Olympic Team pin, the national hockey team had nine other pins that had NOC pin collectors scrambling to get them all. It seemed like every day a new pin emerged--which got a bit pricey trying to collect them all.

Thus, having taken a lesson from its Soviet ancestry*, the Belarussian Olympic hockey team has quickly established a tradition of producing hockey-dedicated NOC pins for the Winter Games.

*See March 27, 2010 Olympic Hockey Pin blog entry regarding Soviet hockey pins through the years.