Russian Vladimir Putin, who seems to love showing off his athletic prowess, emerged as the top scorer in an ice hockey game with other Russian officials.
ADVERTISEMENTVladimir Putin finished as the top scorer in an ice hockey game on Friday, the latest in a long line of spectacles that show off his apparent athletic prowess.
Russia's president managed to fall once during his victory lap. He was quickly helped up by his fellow teammates and continued doing his round.
Putin, who occasionally plays ice hockey with other Russian officials, showed off his puck-handling skills after opening the scoring unassisted by beating the goaltender two minutes into the game.
Though he led his team to a 14-7 victory, the president was given plenty of scoring opportunities and was met with little resistance by the opposing side's defence.
It is not the first time Putin has taken part in what are perceived to be masculine activities.
Last year he drove a truck over a bridge to the Crimean peninsula, which Russia annexed from Ukraine in 2014.
He’s also flown planes and hang gliders, driven tanks, cruised around on a three-wheeled motorbike, taken up the controls of snowmobile, piloted a powerboat dressed in camouflage and shades and, perhaps most famously, been pictured bare-chested while riding a horse.
Putin has also helped track bears, been snapped showing off his fishing catches and enjoyed a weights session with Dmitry Medvedev.
But the stunts have not all been about forging a hard man persona: he once took a canary yellow Lada Kalina on a 2,000-kilometre drive across Siberia in a bid to boost Russia’s car industry, and, perhaps, his own ratings.