Flying French

|- | colspan=" 2" style=" text-align: center; padding: 0.5em; " bgcolor=" white" | |- | Club founded in | bgcolor=#EEEEEE| 1933 |- | Colors | bgcolor=#EEEEEE| blue, white and red |- | Skating rink | bgcolor=#EEEEEE| Sonja-Neighed Skating rink
( places) |- | President | bgcolor=#EEEEEE| Stéphan CLOUT |- | Seat | bgcolor=#EEEEEE| General sports palate of Paris Bercy
8, Boulevard of Bercy
75012 Paris |} The French Wheels are a club of Hockey of Paris evolving/moving on the fourth national level (D3) for the season 2006 - 2007.

History

Canada must be regarded as the cradle of hockey. The first match proceeded there, in 1855, putting at the catches soldiers of a British garrison, in Kingston. The International federation, the IIHF (International Ice Hockey Federation) was founded in 1908 and North America, the NHL (National League Hockey), in 1917. Since 1920, the hockey was allowed with the J.O… of summer, in Antwerp, while waiting for Chamonix and the first Plays of Winter, in 1924.

It is in the crash of the sticks and a boosted environment that are held large the matches hockey, sport whose phenomenon of popularity did not cease growing at the end of the 20th century and who can be regarded as a kind of transposition on the ice of football.

With hockey, all is held at a rate/rhythm striking and a distracting speed (nearly 60 km/h) with the ceaseless raids towards the goals, without speaking about the permanent full-contact, always with the limit of aggressiveness, between helmeted players (obligatory since 1980), stuffed, extremely determined, who ruent themselves towards the cage… as much as on the adversary. The loads, indeed, are allowed since 1951.

That especially gives a spectacle haletant and attractive that television - without speaking about Olympic lighting - knew magistralement to put in scene, since the great competitions of the NHL in North America (the United States and Canada) were diffused regularly in Europe.

The tradition on the Old continent is strong also for a long time in the Scandinavian countries which always shone (Sweden, Finland especially), Switzerland, Czechoslovakia, Germany, Great Britain, France and of course the USSR.

This one was affirmed like a world power as from 1956, even very dominating with the Olympic Games, of 1964 until memorable being surprised Plays of Lake Placid, in 1980: victory and gold medal for the United States. Soviets, then the CEI (1), before the bursting of the red empire, thus gained eight Olympic titles out of twelve between 1956 and the Year 2000.

Czechoslovakia, another protagonist in Europe, also regularly shone with the championships of the world and the OJ, the Czech Republic (separated from Slovakia) gaining even the Olympic title, in Nagano, in 1998.

Six against six! A 60 meters length playing field on 30 meters broad, girdled balustrades and walls out of plexiglass. Three twenty minutes third-times. Three referees on the ice and out of shirt with black and white stripes of which a referee as a chief who can inflict penalties of two, five or ten minutes of prison, even expulsion. A rubber metal disc vulganized 7,62 cm in diameter, 2,54 cm thickness, weighing 160 grams. Sticks out of wooden, glass fiber or carbon to project the metal disc (also called puck or disc) towards the goal or to address master keys to the partners. Protective equipment intended to resist the shocks with in particular helmet, shell, épaulières, coudières, leggings, gloves and shoes out of plastic or leather reinforced with the end… And the match can start!

Each team includes/understands twenty players: two guards, three lines of two defenders, four lines of three attackers. The replacements of lines are frequent and are carried out in a homogeneous way according to the tactical diagrams of the trainers, generally between 45 and 90 seconds.

The hockey is also the only sport where the players can move behind the goals, zone where often the battle makes rage for the conquest of the metal disc while day before the guard in front of his cage of 1,83 meter broad.

The goalkeeper is always the mascot of his team but also the man basic, even the providential man. Thus, of the time of the splendor of the Soviet team, Vladislav Tretiak, of the CSKA of Moscow, triples Olympic champion, it was affirmed like the largest guard of all times.

Each goal is literally " harnaché" with equipment which does not weigh far from 20 kilos. It carries a helmet to grid, for safety reasons, a drill plate, enormous broad leggings, a shield of one hand to avoid the shootings violent one and a glove reinforced to seize or push back the metal disc. It has as a stick broader as that of the players of field.

Often the fate of match rests on its effectiveness. Thus, at the time of the surprised victory (4-3) of the Americans, with the Plays of Lake Placid (1980), the statistics - which one is very fond of delicacies in hockey - had allowed to establish that James Craig, on the seven matches of the Olympic tournament, had stopped or pushed back 163 shootings out of 178, that is to say a percentage of success of 91,6%! He was considered, in the United States, at the time, like a true national hero.

Another national hero: the Wayne Gretzky Canadian, regarded as the player of the century, the most prolific marker, the most generous fellow-member and the equivalent in hockey of Michael Jordan to the basketball. In Nagano, in 1998, Gretzky had the bad luck, for its first participation in the Plays, at 37 years, not to know the success with Canada (4th). In nineteen seasons of NHL, it had gained four times Stanley Cup, carrying the shirt of Edmonton Oilers, Saint Louis Blues, Los Angeles Kings and New York Rangers with 82 goals (more 122 in play-off) with its credit!

Canada, at the time of several OJ preceding those by Nagano, had never been able to present its dream-TEAM bus each time was held, at the same time, Stanley Cup and in any event, the stars professional were not allowed with the OJ before the rule is softened.

The extent of the phenomenon hockey in North America holds in these impressive figures: five million practitioners in the joined together United States and Canada.

Main concern of the great international agencies of hockey: to stop the wave of violence which invaded the skating rinks. This plague is directly related on the evolution of the hockey-spectacle, the improvement of the physical potential of the hockeyeurs and especially to the economic issues and financial. The alarm bell was drawn in order to slow down the aggressions, source of very serious wounds (concussions…) and to modify the rules to restore the good game.

At the end of the 20th century developed the female hockey. The first Olympic title was decreed in Nagano, in 1998, in the United States. It should be noted that it was of true hockey and not about the ringuette, this very similar discipline and definitely less " virile" who was born in Canada for the women and is practiced with a stick and a ring out of rubber.

(1) CEI: The Community of the Independent States (the ex-USSR minus the Baltic States)

Prize list

League Magnus: 1936, 1937, 1938, 1989

Players emblematic

The mythical player of the Flying French is certainly Philippe Lacarrière. Captain of the Team of France to the Olympic Games of Grenoble in 1968.

External bonds

Official site of the club
nonofficial Site of the Flying French.
not-official Site, reports photographs of the Flying French matches

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