All news
The Faceoff: Alexei Kovalev
In February of 2019, I took a walk with Alexei Kovalev in the Forbidden City of Beijing. We wound through throngs of visitors—an experience hard to reimagine in the throes of a pandemic—low fog shrouding the roofs of imperial palaces that stood for six centuries. Kunlun Red Star had just relocated to the Chinese capital after several seasons in Shang-hai, a long-awaited homecoming that would be astoundingly short-lived. A future venue for the 2022 Winter Olympics, Shougang Arena had finally opened its doors to the displaced Dragons, a modern complex on the site of an old steel plant experiencing a renaissance ahead of the Games. We could never have imagined then—finally able to explore a home the team scarcely knew—that Kunlun would be exiled from Beijing three more times.
