November 15, 1999

"Failure or success seems to have been allotted to men by their stars. But they retain the power of wriggling, of fighting with their star or against it, and in the whole universe the only really interesting movement is this wriggle."

E. M. Forster (1879–1970),
British novelist, essayist,
"Our Diversions: The Game of Life"

In all the world, it is hard to find such a miraculous destiny as Sergei Gomolyako has in contemporary hockey.

His personality could not but attract the attention of ordinary people and certainly fervent hockey fans. He is one who has an excellent understanding of the game, good vision and brilliant hockey sense and is a very deceptive puckhandler capable of creating a lot of scoring chances with creative moves and a good shot But these are not the only qualities that make him an outstanding figure on the ice. He has a huge size and strength. He stands 188 cm (6'02") tall and weighs approximately 121 kg  (266 lbs.). His physical size could hardly be compared with anybody’s else in European hockey. Specialists used to say the following about young Gomolyako: He has the hands of a magician. Sergei was even destined for the hockey throne of Mario Lemieux.

But, the trouble started when he became ill with a metabolism disorder. Ten years ago, he was sent to the hospital for observation. When the doctors saw his analysis, they were horrified and declared: The best you can do is to attend gymnastics classes for grandmas.

Now, can you imagine what these words meant for a forward who recently received the gold medal at the 1988/89 Junior World Championships in the company of current NHL stars Pavel Bure, Alexander Mogilny, Dimitri Khristich, Sergey Zubov and Dimitry Yushkevich? Moreover, the same year he became the Calgary Flames’ 9^th round selection, 189^th overall, in the 1989 Entry Draft. This forward was a brilliant NHL prospect. Sergei Gomolyako could have had a great NHL career, but sickness interfered with his plans and dreams. As a result, he started to put on weight. Doctors advised him to hang up his skates and to forget about hockey forever.

For anybody else, it would have been a great tragedy, but not for Sergei Gomolyako. He thought everything over once again and decided to act according to the well-known saying of Dag Hammarskjuld (1905–61), Swedish statesman and Secretary-General of U.N.: "We are not permitted to choose the frame of our destiny. But what we put into it is ours."

His was an extreme (boundless) love for ice hockey and hunger for future victory. Today he not only continues with his successful career with the "Metallurg" Magnitogorsk club which is considered the leader of Russian hockey, but he is still able to dominate in one-on-one situations and use his huge size and strength skillfully. It is practically impossible to knock him over, and this sometimes works to his disadvantage. Since referees don’t call penalties when there is no fall, rivals hook him knowing that he will never fall down!

Last year, Sergei Gomolyako and his team won the prestigious club tournament of EUROLEAGUE and became the champions of Russia. As usual, he has done on the ice what he loves. Sergei scored some winning goals and used all his best qualities as a natural born leader.

So the real test of this hockey player was not how well he played the role he had invented for himself, but how well he played the role that destiny assigned to him.

The destiny assigned to him was to never give up without a fight. That’s what he does on and off the ice. He never visits doctors and goes on playing hockey. And it is too bad that in Europe and Russia there is not yet a prize such as what the NHL awards for fortitude and desire to play the game despite his severe disease. He deserves it. Good luck and may success follow you in your miraculous hockey career SERGEI !