List of IIHF World Championship medalists

The gold medal-winning Winnipeg Falcons (representing Canada), pictured en route to the 1920 Olympics, which were counted as the first ice hockey World Championships
IIHF World Championship Cup
IIHF third place trophy

The Ice Hockey World Championships is an annual event held by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). It was preceded by the European Championship which was held from 1910 to 1932. The first World Championship tournament was decided at the 1920 Summer Olympics. Subsequently, ice hockey was featured at the Winter Olympic Games, where the World Championship was decided when the two events occurred concurrently, until the 1968 Winter Olympics. The first three championships were contested at the Olympics, while the first World Championships that were an individual event were held in 1930.[1]

The modern format for the World Championship features 16 teams in the championship group, 12 teams in Division I and 12 teams in Division II. If there are more than 40 teams, the rest compete in Division III. The teams in the championship play a preliminary and qualifying round, then the top eight teams play in the playoff medal round and the winning team is crowned World Champion. From the 1920 Olympics until the 1976 World Championships, only athletes designated as "amateur" were allowed to compete in the tournament. Because of this, players from the National Hockey League and its senior minor-league teams were not allowed to compete, while the Soviet Union was allowed to use permanent full-time players who were positioned as regular workers of an aircraft industry or tractor industry employer that sponsored what would be presented as an after-hours amateur social sports society team for their workers. In 1970, after an agreement to allow just a small number of its professionals to participate was rescinded by the IIHF, Canada withdrew from the tournament.[2] Starting in 1977, professional athletes were allowed to compete in the tournament and Canada re-entered, using some NHL players from those teams that were not good enough to reach the Stanley Cup playoffs.[3]

As of 2024, 87 tournaments have been staged. From 1920 to 1930, the Winter Olympic Games Ice Hockey Tournaments held counted as the World Championships and no tournaments in between were held. No championships were held from 1940 to 1946 due to World War II, nor during the Olympic years 1980, 1984 and 1988, nor in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic.[4] Ten national teams[a] have won a gold medal at the World Championships, five more national teams[b] have won medals. Canada has won 53 medals overall and 28 gold, the most of any nation. The Soviet Union, which began competing in the year of 1954 and last competed in 1991, captured a medal in each of 34 tournaments they entered.[1] In winning the 2006 World Championships, Sweden became the first nation in ice hockey history to win an Olympic gold as well as a separate World Championship in the same season.[5] In 2022, Finland repeated this achievement by winning the World Championships at home.

  1. ^ a b "International hockey timeline". IIHF. Archived from the original on 14 July 2018. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  2. ^ MacSkimming 1996, p. 8.
  3. ^ "IIHF World Men's Championship". Hockey Canada. Archived from the original on 19 August 2007. Retrieved 12 May 2008.
  4. ^ "All Medalists: Men: IIHF World Championships". IIHF. Archived from the original on 26 November 2009. Retrieved 2 March 2010.
  5. ^ "Sweden Completes 'Double' at IIHF Worlds". The Sports Network. Associated Press. 21 May 2006. Archived from the original on 2008-05-19. Retrieved 12 May 2008.


Cite error: There are <ref group=lower-alpha> tags or {{efn}} templates on this page, but the references will not show without a {{reflist|group=lower-alpha}} template or {{notelist}} template (see the help page).