World Championships
The Ice Hockey World Championships are organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). IIHF was founded on May 15, 1908 as Ligue International de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG) by four nations (see the founding document of the LIHG):
- Britain,
- France,
- Great Britain and
- Switzerland.
Louis Magnus (France) became the first president of the LIHG. In the same year, Bohemia (later Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic) joined the organization as the fifth member.
First Ice Hockey World Championship
The first ever Ice Hockey World Championship was held in 1920 as a part of the Summer Olympic Games (yeah, ice hockey was played in the Summer Olympic Games, but only one time) in Antwerp (Belgium). There were only six teams – Canada, Czechoslovakia, USA, Switzerland, Sweden and Belgium. The final standing was:
- Gold medal – Canada (represented by Winnipeg Falcons, see the photo)
- Silver medal – USA
- Bronze medal – Czechoslovakia
Back in the year 1920, this tournament was not considered as a Ice Hockey World Championship. IIHF decided in the year 1982 that this tournament will be considered as the First Ice Hockey World Championship.
Following Ice Hockey World Championships
First three Ice Hockey World Championships were played as a part of the Olympic Games (1920, 1924 and 1928). Fourth World Championship was played in year 1930 and for the first time in the history it was not a part of the Olympic Games. Nevertheless, results of the European teams were used to determine 15th European Champion.
All later tournaments were used to determine European Champion. The only exception is the year 1932 when the separate European Championship was played. The last European Champion was Soviet Union in the year 1991. After this year, the tradition of European Championships was stopped.
To the year 1968 (including), the World Championship was not played as a stand-alone tournament in the years when Winter Olympic Games were held. Both tournaments (World Championship and Olympic tournament) were played as a joint event as a part of the Olympic Games, i.e., the Olympic winner became the World Champion and the best European team became European Champion.
Medal Table
The best three teams in the history are (as of 2016):
- Russia (27 gold medals)
- Canada (26 gold medals) and
- the Czech Republic (12 gold medals).
For the full results and alternative ranking based on the point see Medal Table on this web.