ALEX THE GREAT 8

From Moscow to Washington, how Alex Ovechkin ended up on the cusp of making NHL history

Alex Ovechkin almost stopped playing hockey.

His mother Tatyana was a basketball player, his father Mikhail was a soccer player, and they were traveling with their teams, leaving no one to take young Alex to practice. Coach Vyacheslav Kirillov begged Tatyana to get him back into the sport until she gave in.

Good thing, too. Raised in the final years of the Soviet sports system by parents who were already accomplished athletes, Ovechkin was given every chance to succeed, and he has evolved into a superstar on the ice.