The Capitals captain's 145-page dissertation is on "organization of technical and tactical training in professional hockey clubs in Russia and the National Hockey League."
Washington Capitals captain Alex Ovechkin truly is a jack of all trades, and outside of his monumental career, he's also pursuing a doctorate degree.
After a discussion among fans on social media, a few outlets, including fan blog Russian Machine Never Breaks, ran with a story that Ovechkin earned his PhD in Pedagogical Sciences after defending a 145-page dissertation he published on the topic of "organization of technical and tactical training in professional hockey clubs in Russia and the National Hockey League." However, that's not yet the case.
Ultimately, MatchTV touched base with Viktor Gorsky, Ovechkin's scientific reviewer, Viktor Gorsky, who said that he completed his pre-defense but, to his knowledge, hasn't completed his defense yet.
"Ovechkin has not yet carried it out, although all 14 members of the Academic Council and reviewers were unanimously in favor of the pre-defense," Gorsky said, adding, "First, pre-defense, then protection, then, doctor of science, but for this, you need to write a doctoral disseration. As I understood, Ovechkin has postponed (the defense) until he ends his hockey career. It's still a serious job."
Then, X User @uggg_uggg, who translates content and shares stories related to Russian hockey players in the NHL and KHL, further clarified where things stand with his pursuit of a doctorate degree.
"Ovechkin's disseration abstract dated 2022 formally seeks the degree of Candidate of Pedagogical Sciences, a postgraduate academic title common in Russia, roughly equivalent to a PhD in the West," he wrote, adding, "The mere existence of a printed abstract from 2022 suggesets that, at some point, a specific defense date had been set. One step remained: the defense itself."
Ovechkin's thesis is titled "Comparative analysis of technical and tactical training in teams in North America and Russia," and Ovechkin also told MatchTV that in the future, he wants to use his knowledge for opening his hockey school.
"All the methods that I received in my career, wanted to put it in the dissertation and apply in practice," Ovechkin said. "I have a great team that helped me."