Objective of the study was to find the socio-economic factors for influence on the Soviet national ice hockey team successes on the global arenas in 1970-1979. Methods and structure of the study. We used a point system to account the medals won by the Soviet national team at the World Ice Hockey Championships for 10 years (1970 through 1979). It should be noted that the World Ice Hockey Championships prior to 1972 were timed to the Olympics and in 1972 and 1976 were run separate from the Winter Olympic Games. In the Olympic years of 1980, 1984 and 1988, no World Championships were run. We used a correlation analysis in view of the relatively limited sample, with the national success in ice hockey rated in points for medals won versus the key socio-economic factors including the specific yearly GDP growths per capita (%), yearly urbanization rates (%) and yearly population growth rates (%) for the study period. Results and conclusions. National competitive accomplishments depend on multiple quantitative and qualitative factors which may be analyzed for the success forecast purposes taking into account many specific features of the country and sports discipline. The study data and analysis confirmed the assumption that not everything in sports depends on the national socio-economic progress factors, natural environments, geographic conditions and population. Of special influence on the national competitive progress, particularly in the socialist Soviet period, was the state support with the generous sport financing programs, mass sports promotion movements, mass physical education and sports enthusiasm, the highest popularity of the national sports celebrities, excellent skills, experiences and appealing personalities of the leading coaches etc., and all that factors heavily contributed to the popularity of the favorite national sports.
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