On Golden Ponds: Neon-Green Slovenia Turning Heads

Win over Slovakia an Olympic first

You say Slovakia, I say Slovenia.

Same difference, right? Wrong. Slovakia is a hotbed for hockey. Slovenia is, umm... hey, check out the neon green on those uniforms!

Those glowing green and blue jerseys have been the only memorable feature of Team Slovenia in these Olympics -- until now.

The Slovenians pulled off the biggest win in the country's history (and first Olympic win ever) by downing Team Slovakia on Saturday, 3-1.

"Now that we've beaten Slovakia, maybe they're not going to mix us up with them anymore," Slovenia's only NHL player on its roster, Anze Kopitar of the Los Angeles Kings, told the Associated Press.

Being in the Olympics at all is a remarkable feat for Team Slovenia, considering this one simple stat:

According to the International Ice Hockey Federation, the entire country of Slovenia is home to just seven indoor ice rinks. That's right, seven.

The entire state of Minnesota, by comparison, has more than 200, according to rinkfinder.com. Heck, Mexico has 23 indoor rinks, says the IIHF.

For a country with so few available hockey players to choose from (148 according to the IIHF), it's impressive that they have even made the Olympics, let alone win.

But still, those uniforms. What's up with that?

This is a picture of Slovenia's flag:


Note the prominence of red, white and blue. So why are their uniforms white, blue and neon green? The same thing could be asked of the country's soccer team, which uses identical colors.

Some say they use the colors in order to distinguish themselves from Slovakia, which also uses the red, white and blue color scheme. That could be part of it.

Others say the colors are a nod to the beautiful landscape of the country, which is filled with green mountains and blue skies. This is also why you see the pointed lines on the jerseys, which represent said mountains.

And this is an example of said mountains:

One can see why the country is so proud of them.

In any case, the neon green has had Twitter abuzz throughout the Sochi Games. Enjoy.

!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],p=/^http:/.test(d.location)?'http':'https';if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=p+"://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,"script","twitter-wjs");

Contact Us