Vladislav Aleksandrovich Tretiak, MSM (; born 25 April 1952) is a Russian former goaltender for the Soviet Union national ice hockey team. Considered to be one of the greatest goaltenders in the history of the sport, he was voted one of six players to the International Ice Hockey Federation's (IIHF) Centennial All-Star Team in a poll conducted by a group of 56 experts from 16 countries. He is the current president of the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia and was the general manager of the Russian 2010 Winter Olympic team. Early years Tretiak grew up in the USSR. His parents are from Dmitrovsky District. His father served 37 years as a military pilot, and his mother was a physical education teacher. Although he initially followed his brother as a swimmer, as a child Tretiak excelled at many sports, and is remembered for his ambition to master all of them. However, like many children of his generation, he loved hockey, and at age 11 entered the Children and Youth Sports School of the Central Sports Club of the Army (known by its abbreviation CSKA). His first trainer was Vitaly Erfilov. He began playing goaltender when he saw that no one else had the desire or courage to play the position. International playing career Although Tretiak did not play his first hockey game until the age of eleven (1963), he was well known in the USSR by 1971 (aged 19), when he was named to the Soviet Ice Hockey League's First All-Star Team, while playing for the powerhouse Red Army team, CSKA Moscow. He also played well in the 1972 Winter Olympics, in which the Soviets took the gold medal. Tretiak became internationally famous after his outstanding performance in the Summit Series in 1972, when he helped surprise the world, including the Canadian team, en route to a narrow loss to the Canadians. A famous story was told of how Canadian scouts seriously underestimated his ability prior to the series; they witnessed him let in eight goals on a particular night, not knowing that he had been married the previous evening (and most of the team had been in attendance). Of the entire Soviet roster, Canadian players and fans held Tretiak in the highest regard and respect and Tretiak was one of the most famous players of the Series along with Phil Esposito, Paul Henderson, Alexandr Iakushev and Valeri Kharlamov. As a