UPDATE: Here's the full profile, which goes into more serious stuff too.
Quick: what do you immediately think of when you hear the words "Alex Ovechkin?" I'm sure your first thought has to do with his hockey skills, whether it's his super-fast wrist shot, his huge hits, his out-of-control style or his over-the-top goal celebrations. But admit it: your second thought would have something to do with him being a rockstar that parties like crazy, is beloved by women and, to use a PG term, enjoys being famous.
As it turns out, your second thought is on point to the extreme. GQ profiled Ovechkin in its November issue, sending a reporter with him on one of his "main hunting grounds" in Moscow to see how Ovechkin really lives. The full article is only available in print, but excerpts have found their way onto Russian Machine Never Breaks, Reliable Source and D.C. Sports Bog. They paint a picture of Ovechkin that's even more Ovechkin-like than we could have possibly imagined.
What does it mean to be "Ovechkin-like." Apparently, one thing it means is making out with two women in front of a reporter. Via D.C. Sports Bog:
They're dressed like snow bunnies and have clearly had at least some skating classes between them. A stray thought visits me that Ovie has brought one of them to keep me company, but before I can figure out which one, it becomes rather obvious he's planning to keep both...[He] takes turns making out with Lera while Olesya documents the proceedings and making out with Olesya while Lera does the documenting. While the calves and the lamb cavort, I hug the boards for an hour and a half. The girls giggle. The whole tableau is a high school nightmare come to life.
This is one part awesome and one part, uhh, well, I don't know. Put it this way: if you were at a bar with your buddy and he took both girls, you'd be pretty pissed, right? Then again, it's Ovechkin. The fact that he'd even do this is enough reason for him to be awesome.
Other nuggets:
- Ovechkin's reaction when girls walk by, via RMNB: " For a while, we cruise down Tverskaya. Each time he sees a pretty girl walking by, Ovechkin shouts "BOOM!" at the top of his lungs."
- Ovechkin on one of the clubs he frequents in Moscow, via RMNB: "There's some quality action at Soho Rooms, real high quality," he says when we start talking clubs. "You should go pick up some telochki." The word literally means "calves" and semantically falls somewhere between "chicks" and "bitches." "Especially if you you've got your own table. Just go up to the girls, say, ‘I've got a table,' and they'll hop right along." If only that worked with normal people.
- Ovechkin on the difference between Moscow and D.C., via Reliable Source: "If you compare Russia and America," he told the magazine, "they are two different worlds. People, cars, clothes. Girls' figures. Especially girls' figures. Why do you think that is, that when an American goes to Russia for a week, he stays for two extra weeks? Girls! And when a Russian goes to America for a week, he leaves in five days." That sound you hear is someone furiously researching to find out whether this is actually true.