1920–1928: Olympic Games (representing Canada) en route to the
1920 Summer Olympics. The IIHF considers the ice hockey tournament held at the
1920 Summer Olympics to be the first Ice Hockey World Championship. Canada, represented by the
Winnipeg Falcons, won the gold medal, outscoring opponents 27–1. The United States and Czechoslovakia won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Following the
1921 Olympic Congress in
Lausanne, the
first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in
Chamonix, France, though they were only officially recognized by the
International Olympic Committee (IOC) as such in the following year. Subsequently, every Olympic tournament up to and including the
1968 Winter Olympics is counted as the World Championship. Canada won the gold medal at both the 1924 and
1928 Winter Olympics. In 1928, the Swedish and Swiss teams won their first medals–silver and bronze, respectively–and a
German team participated for the first time, finishing ninth.
1930–1953: Canadian dominance at the
1939 World Championships|alt=Black and white photo of hockey team standing in a row on the ice The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in
1930. It was held in Chamonix, France;
Vienna, Austria; and
Berlin, Germany. Canada, represented by the
Toronto CCMs, defeated Germany in the gold medal game, and Switzerland won the bronze. Canada, represented by the
Manitoba Grads, won the
following year, and the
Winnipeg Winnipegs won Gold for Canada at the
1932 Winter Olympics. At the
1933 World Championships in
Prague, Czechoslovakia, the United States won the gold medal, becoming the first non-Canadian team to win the competition. The United States would not win gold again at a non-Olympic tournament until
2025. Two days before the
1936 Winter Olympics in Germany, Canadian officials protested that two players on the British team—
James Foster and
Alex Archer—had played in Canada but transferred without permission to play for clubs in the
English National League. The IIHF agreed with Canada, but Britain threatened to withdraw if the two could not compete. Canada withdrew the protest before the games started. Britain became the first non-Canadian team to win Olympic gold, with the United States taking bronze. Canada won the remainder of the World Championship tournaments held in the 1930s. The 1939 World Championships marked the first time that a team from
Finland competed in the tournament.
World War II forced the cancellation of the
1940 and
1944 Winter Olympics and the World Championships from 1941 to 1946. Following World War II, Czechoslovakia's team was quickly improving. They won the
1947 World Championships, although a Canadian team had not participated in the event. In
1949, they became the third nation to win a World Championship tournament that Canada participated in. During the run-up to the
1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a conflict broke out with the two American hockey bodies: the American Hockey Association (AHA, a forerunner to
USA Hockey) and the
Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU refused to support the AHA's team because they believed that AHA players were "openly paid salaries" and at the time, the Olympics were strictly for amateur players. A compromise was reached that the AHA team would be allowed to compete but would be considered unofficial and unable to win a medal. By the end of the tournament, the AHA team finished fourth in the standings. Both Czechoslovakia and the
RCAF Flyers of Canada won seven games and tied when they played each other. The gold medal winner was determined by
goal average: Canada won the gold because they had an average of 13.8 compared to Czechoslovakia's average of 4.3. At the
1952 Winter Olympics in
Oslo,
Norway, the
Edmonton Mercurys won Canada's second consecutive Olympic gold medal and their 15th World Championship in 19 competitions. It was the last time that a Canadian team would win an Olympic gold medal in hockey for 50 years. At the
1953 tournament, reigning champion Canada did not attend, while the team from Czechoslovakia withdrew because of the death of the
General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, leaving only Sweden, West Germany, and Switzerland competing in the top division. Sweden finished the tournament undefeated and won their first World Championship.
1954–1962: Canada–Soviet Union rivalry in
Moscow was played at the
Luzhniki Stadium. It was attended by at least 50,000 people, a tournament record until 2010. The
1954 World Championships has been described by the IIHF as "the start of the modern era of international hockey." The tournament saw the first participation of the
Soviet Union in international competition. The Soviet Union had organized its first ice hockey league in 1946, having previously focused on
bandy. At the
1956 Winter Olympics in
Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Canada's
Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen lost to both the Soviets and the United States in the medal round and won the bronze. The Soviets went undefeated and won their first Olympic ice hockey gold medal. It would be seven years until the Soviet Union won another World Championship. Canada returned to the World Championship in 1958 and won two consecutive titles, with the Soviets winning silver both times. In 1961, Czechoslovakia defeated the Soviet Union and tied Canada to make it a three-way race for gold. In the final game, Canada defeated the Soviets 5–1 to win their nineteenth gold medal. The
Trail Smoke Eaters became the final club team to represent Canada. The following year, Canada implemented a national team program, led by
Father David Bauer. Canada would not win another world championship gold until 1994. In 1962, the World Championships were held in North America for the first time. The tournament was held in
Denver, United States, and was boycotted by the Soviet and Czechoslovak teams. Sweden defeated Canada for the first time in the history of the competition and won their third gold medal. At the 1963 World Championships in Stockholm, the Soviet Union won the gold medal, beginning a streak of nine consecutive World Championship golds. The
1964 Winter Olympics in
Innsbruck,
Austria marked the first time that Canada failed to win an Olympic medal in hockey. The Soviet Union won all seven of their games and the gold medal, but Canada finished the tournament with five wins and two losses, putting them in a three-way tie for second place with Sweden and Czechoslovakia. Prior to 1964, the tie-breaking procedure was based on goal difference from games against teams in the medal round and under that system, Canada would have placed third ahead of the Czechoslovaks. The procedure had been changed to count all games and that meant the Canadians finished fourth. However, the Olympics also counted as the World Championships, and under IIHF rules, Canada should have won a World Championship bronze. In April 2005, the IIHF admitted that a mistake had occurred and announced that they had reviewed the decision and would award the 1964 Canadian team a World Championship bronze medal. However, two months later, the IIHF over-turned their decision and rejected an appeal in September. The Soviets dominated the remainder of the decade. Following 1963, the team went undefeated in Olympic and World Championship competition for four years. Their streak was broken by Czechoslovakia at the
1968 Winter Olympics. Despite the loss, the Soviets still won gold. It was the last time that the Olympics were also counted as the World Championships. In 1969, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia played "the most emotionally charged games in the history of international hockey." The rights to host the tournament had originally been awarded to Czechoslovakia but they were forced to decline the rights following the
Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of the nation in August 1968. With European teams using their best players who are de facto professionals, the
Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive and pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues. At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF voted to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional players at the 1970 World Championships. The rights to host the tournament were awarded to Canada for the first time–in
Montreal and
Winnipeg. However, the decision to allow the use of professionals was reversed in January 1970. IOC president
Avery Brundage was opposed to the idea of amateur and professional players competing together and said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made. In response, Canada withdrew from International ice hockey competition. Canada's ice hockey team did not participate in the
1972 and
1976 Winter Olympics. 1972 marked the first time that both the Olympics and World Championships were held in the same year as separate events. At the
World Championships in Prague, the Czechoslovak team ended the Soviet team's streak and won their first gold since 1949.
1976–1987: First years of open competition Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. The IIHF agreed to allow "
open competition" of all players in the World Championships, and moved the competition to later in the season so players not involved in the
NHL playoffs could participate. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of both the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's strict amateur-only policy. The IIHF also agreed to endorse the
Canada Cup, a competition meant to bring together the best players from the top hockey-playing countries. The
1976 World Ice Hockey Championships in
Katowice were the first to feature professionals although in the end only the
United States made use of the new rule, recalling eight pros from the NHL's
Minnesota North Stars and the WHA's
Minnesota Fighting Saints. The first fully open World Championship was held in
1977 in
Vienna, Austria, and saw the first participation of active Canadian NHL players, including two-time
NHL MVP Phil Esposito. Sweden and Finland also augmented their rosters with a few NHL and WHA players. Many of the players on the Canadian team were not prepared for the tournament and were unfamiliar with the international game. The team finished fourth, losing both games to the Soviet Union by a combined score of 19–2. Czechoslovakia won gold, becoming the third team (after Canada and the Soviet Union) to win consecutive championships. The
World Under-18 Championship was established in 1999 and typically held in April. It usually does not involve some of the top North American-based players because they are involved in
junior league playoffs at the time. Starting in
1978, the Soviet team won five consecutive World Championships, and had an unbeaten streak that lasted from
1981 through the
1984 Winter Olympics and until
1985. During that period, Canada remained competitive, winning three bronze medals. World Championship tournaments were not held in 1980, 1984 or 1988–the Olympic years. However, the Finns finished out of the medal round, and Sweden won their first gold medal since 1962. The tournament format also became controversial because the Soviet Union finished undefeated in the preliminary round but the Swedish team, which had lost three games in the preliminary round, won on goal differential because of a 9–0 win over Canada in the medal round.
1989–1992: Fall of the Iron Curtain won four World Championships before departing to play in the NHL in 1989. In March 1989,
Sergei Pryakhin became the first member of the Soviet national team who was permitted to play for a non-Soviet team. Several Soviet players, including
Igor Larionov and
Viacheslav Fetisov, wanted to leave and play in the NHL. Soviet officials agreed to allow players to leave if they played one final tournament with the national team. Players agreed to this, and the Soviet Union won its 21st
World Championship. Shortly after, Soviet players began to flood into the NHL. Many of the Soviet Union's top players left, including the entire "
Green Unit"–Larionov, Fetisov,
Vladimir Krutov,
Sergei Makarov and
Alexei Kasatonov. The following year, the Soviet team won their final title at the
1990 World Championships. In
1991, Swedish forward
Mats Sundin–the first European player to be drafted
first overall in the NHL–led his team to the gold medal. The Soviets won bronze–the last medal the team would ever win. The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991. Nine former Soviet republics became part of the IIHF and began competing in international competitions, including
Belarus,
Kazakhstan,
Latvia (which returned after a 52-year-long absence due to having been
occupied by the Soviet Union) and
Ukraine; the largest,
Russia, succeeded the USSR. With this flood of new teams, the IIHF expanded the number of spots from eight to twelve. From 1963 to 1991, only four teams won a World Championship medal: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia (failing to win a medal only three times), Sweden and Canada. The Soviets won a medal in every tournament they participated in (1954 to 1991).
1993–present Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in January 1993. The IIHF recognized the
Czech Republic's team as the successor to Czechoslovakia, and it retained its position in the top division while
Slovakia's team began in the lowest division (Pool C) in 1994 and was forced to work its way up. Following this, the next decade was dominated by the so-called "
Big Six"–Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. From 1992 to 1996, five different teams won the World Championship. At the
1993 World Championships, Russia won its first title as an independent nation and the Czech Republic won its first medal (bronze).
The following year in Sweden, the Finnish team won its first ever World Championship. Led by their top line of
Saku Koivu,
Ville Peltonen and
Jere Lehtinen, the Finns defeated rival Sweden in the gold medal game. At the 1995 Pool B championships, Slovakia, led by
Peter Šťastný won Pool B and was promoted to the top division, where it has remained ever since. In
1996, the Czech Republic won its first World Championship as a separate country. During this period, the United States was the only one of the "Big Six" not to win the World Championship, and their bronze at that year's World Championship was their first medal since 1962. In the mid-1990s, several new teams such as Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were quickly improving and older nations such as Austria, France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland were at risk of being relegated to Pool B. The IIHF feared that it would lose advertising revenue if that happened, so the number of teams was increased to 16 starting in 1998. scores a goal in the gold medal game between Canada and Russia at the
2008 World Championships. From 1996 to 2001, the Czech Republic won six consecutive World Championship medals, including World Championship gold from
1999 to
2001, as well as gold at the
1998 Winter Olympics. In
2002, the Czechs were favoured to win, but were upset in the quarter final by Russia. In the gold medal game between Russia and Slovakia, Slovak
Peter Bondra scored in the final two minutes of the game and the nation won its first ever World Championship. At the
2003 World Championships, Sweden made one of the biggest comebacks in tournament history, rallying from a 5–1 deficit in their quarterfinal game against Finland to win 6–5. The gold medal game between Canada and Sweden went into overtime. Canada's
Anson Carter scored the winning goal 13 minutes into play, but the goal had to be reviewed for ten minutes to determine if the puck had crossed the line. In a rematch of the two nations
the following year, Canada won and repeated as champions. (2010) The
2004–05 NHL season was
locked out, and eventually
cancelled, because of a labour dispute between the league and the players. The
2005 World Championships, which featured more top players than normal, was won by the Czech Republic. At the
2006 Winter Olympics, Sweden won the gold medal over Finland. Three months later, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic and won the
2006 World Championships. They became the first team to win Olympic gold and a separate World Championship tournament in the same year. At the
2007 World Championship in Moscow, Canada defeated Finland to win the gold medal.
The following year, the tournament was held in Canada for the first time. Russia defeated the home team to win their first gold medal since 1993. The Russian team successfully defended their title with a 2–1 win over Canada in
2009. In 2009,
NHL Players' Association director
Paul Kelly suggested that the World Championships be held every other year and that the NHL go on break to allow full player participation. IIHF president
René Fasel responded that the tournament has television contracts and hosting commitments and that a large change would be difficult to put in place. The
2010 tournament took place in Germany. The first game, between Germany and the United States, was played at
Veltins-Arena in
Gelsenkirchen and was attended by 77,803 people, setting a new record for the most attended game in hockey history. The tournament was noted for having several surprising preliminary round results, including: Switzerland beating Canada for the first time in World Championship play; Norway defeating eventual champions the Czech Republic; and Denmark upsetting Finland and the United States en route to their first ever quarterfinal appearance. The German team, which had finished 15th in 2009 and only avoided relegation to Division I because they were set to host the 2010 tournament, advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since the new playoff format was adapted. They finished fourth, losing to Sweden in the bronze medal game. In the gold medal game, the Czech Republic defeated the Russian team, winning gold. (2011) The
2011 tournament was held in independent Slovakia for the first time. Finland won its second world championship with a 6–1 victory over Sweden. The Czech Republic won the bronze medal over Russia. The
2012 tournament was held in Sweden and Finland. Russia beat Slovakia in the final, while the Czech Republic beat Finland in the bronze medal game. In
2013,
Switzerland finished the preliminary round undefeated before losing the gold medal game 5–1 to co-hosts Sweden. Switzerland's silver medal was the first for the nation since 1953. Sweden's gold made them the first team to win the tournament at home since the Soviet Union in 1986. The
2014 tournament was held for the first time in independent Belarus in spite of concerns of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the authoritarian government. The tournament saw more upsets by the less prominent ice-hockey nations. France had beaten Canada for the second time in the modern history and made it to the quarterfinals. Eventual finalist Finland lost to Latvia and made it to the quarterfinals only due to a shootout win over Switzerland. The tournament was won by Russia (which had a stacked NHL squad compared to other teams who sent in younger players after the
2014 Winter Olympics), Finland won silver and Sweden won bronze defeating the Czech Republic. The
2015 tournament was held in
Prague and
Ostrava, it was the
most attended championship in history. It was to be the last appearance of
Jaromír Jágr on the Czech national hockey team, and the home crowd had great expectations for its national team, who had failed to win a gold medal since 2010, matching its longest run without a win since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. However, the tournament was dominated by an excellent Canadian team, which went undefeated and beat Russia 6–1 in the gold medal match. Its captain,
Sidney Crosby joined the
Triple Gold Club, becoming the first player to achieve that honour as captain of each winning team. The bronze was won by the United States, leaving the Czechs with a second consecutive fourth place. The
2020 tournament was cancelled due to the
COVID-19 pandemic. ==Tournament structure==