by Eva Borsuk

KYIV, Oct 10 – Ukraine’s first ever Black hockey player Jalen Smereck and HC Donbass have agreed to terminate a one-year contract after only three months, the club and the player reported on Sunday.

The surprise move comes after last month’s racist attack on Smereck from Andrei Deniskin of HC Kremenchuk, who also plays for the Ukrainian national team.

“The Donetsk club and the 24-year-old American have terminated the contract by mutual agreement,” said the statement posted by HC Donbass on its official website. Smereck retweeted the same statement.

Smereck has been in an international spotlight over the past two weeks after the attack at a Ukrainian hockey league game between Donbass and Kremenchuk. Deniskin mocked Smereck with a gesture of peeling and eating a banana.

The incident, which was broadcast live on TV and streamed on the Internet, led to the dismissal of Yevhen Kolychev, the general manager of the Ukrainian Hockey League, who had strongly condemned the attack.

The Ukrainian hockey authorities suspended Deniskin for three games with an option of extending the suspension for another 10 games replaceable with a fine of $1,900. The punishment is seen as lenient by most hockey experts.

“In the NHL, the suspension would’ve been at least a year,” Smereck said in a recent interview with the Ukrainian Journal.

Smereck, who lives in eastern Ukraine since August, said he never experienced any racism outside of the game, adding that he receives endless support from ordinary Ukrainians.

“The people are great. They’re friendly,” Smereck said. “It’s really only in the hockey management that I’ve been met with this.”

No one from the Ukrainian Hockey League (UHL), the Ukrainian Hockey Federation (UHF), or the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) have contacted him since the incident, Smereck said.

Smereck has a nonprofit in the U.S. that aims to give underprivileged kids an opportunity to play hockey and basketball, as well as providing food and clothes for poor communities.

“I want to show the younger generations the right way to act when situations like this happen, and I want to work to make hockey more inclusive, so Black kids can play and enjoy the game, not worry about someone saying or doing something,” Smereck said.

Hockey is one of the least diverse sports in the U.S. with about 5% of Black players in the NHL, which is the highest level in more than 100 years since the League was established in 1917. (eb/ez)