Ice Hockey World Championships
From Encyclopedia Jr, free information reference for Kids
The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual event organised by the International Ice Hockey Federation.
They were preceded by the
The
Contents |
[edit] History
[edit] Early years and World War II
In the early days of the Championships, the teams from Canada dominated. Between 1930 and 1939, Canadian teams won the tournament eight times. This occurred despite the fact that Canada sent a different club team each year, as in those days Senior Amateur teams typically represented Canada.
The World War II years caused the Championships to be cancelled from 1940-46.
[edit] Post World War II through to 1970
Canadian teams continued to dominate the tournament in the early post-war era, but from 1954 onwards, the Championships became increasingly competitive, as
While the top European players were officially able to compete in the World Championships while retaining their amateur status, players in the National Hockey League were prohibited for many years from entering in the tournament. As the great majority of NHL players were Canadian nationals, this rule was seen by many as discriminatory against Canadian players.
[edit] 1970 through the End of the Cold War
In 1970, the IIHF allowed Canada to send nine professionals from the ranks of the NHL and its affiliated minor leagues (though as the tournaments were held during the
In 1976, a new president of the IIHF finally allowed professionals on all teams, and Canada returned to competition the following year. By this time, the quality of play of European hockey had improved so much that even Canadian rosters filled with NHL players whose teams had missed the playoffs could not dominate. Not until 1994, 33 years after its previous championship, would Canada win the tournament again.
[edit] Post-Cold War
By the early 1990s the breakup of the Soviet Union, which dominated the Championships for much of the three decades after Canada's dominance ended, and of Czechoslovakia, which won in most of the years in which the Soviets did not, brought about unprecedented parity to the international game for two reasons:
- Players in the former USSR and Czechoslovakia had the freedom to play in the NHL. Thus many European countries' best players were also competing in the NHL, and so unable to send their best to the Championships
- The breakup of the USSR and Czechoslovakia meant that the remaining core states, respectively Russia and the Czech Republic, had fewer talented players to draw from, even among those not playing in the NHL during the Championships.
The breakup of USSR and Czechoslovakia created a challenge for the IIHF because new national teams like Belarus, Czech Republic, Kazakhstan, Latvia, Russia, and Slovakia wanted to participate in the Championships at the highest level of play, pool A. The IIHF ruled that Czech Republic and Russia would be permitted immediate entry to pool A, but the other new national teams would have to start at pool C. It became clear that the new teams were or would soon be, better than many of the existing, but less elite, pool A teams. The Championships ran the risk of established countries being displaced from pool A by the new teams as they advanced from pool C. As the IIHF depended on advertising revenue derived from the established countries, it decided to expand pool A to accommodate the existing pool A teams plus the new rising teams.
In recent championships, the two nations of the former Czechoslovakia have fared extremely well in international play, accounting for four straight championships between 1999-2002 – the first three by the Czech Republic and the latter by Slovakia. (The Czech side also won the
[edit] The Playing Format
The modern format for the World Championships features a minimum of 40 teams: 16 teams in the main group, 12 teams in
The main group features 16 teams. In the Preliminary round the 16 teams are split into 4 groups (Groups A through D) and the teams play each other in a round robin format, and the top 3 teams in each division advance into the Qualifying round. The Qualifying round is another round of group play with 2 groups of 6; the top three teams from group A and group D are placed together and the top three teams from group B and group C are placed together. In the Qualifying round teams maintain their results from the Preliminary round against other teams who have also advanced, and only play against teams which they have not previously played against. The top four teams in each Qualifying round group advance into the knockout playoff stage. In the quarterfinals the first place team from one group plays the fourth place team from the other group, and the second place team from one group plays the third place team from the other group. The winners advance to the semi-finals. The winners of the semi-finals advance to the Gold medal game, and the losers advance to the Bronze medal game.
The bottom teams in the Preliminary round play in another group as well; this group will determine relegation. After a round-robin format, the bottom two teams are usually relegated to Division I. Japan was typically never relegated, as the IIHF held a "Far East Qualifier" with an automatic berth from 1998 to 2005 to develop the popularity of the sport in the Far East. Japan had always won this tournament, but due to the lack popular support in the Far East, little improvement in the quality of play, and poor prospects for any related marketing, the IIHF has discontinued the practice in the
Below the World Championship group are two 6-team Division I round robin groups, the winner of which is promoted to the World Championship group, while each last place team is demoted to Division II. Division II works similarly to Division I, with two 6-team groups where each last place team is relegated to a Division III group. There is no relegation from Division III.
[edit] Significance
Because the World Championships are played at the same time as the NHL playoffs, some of the world's best players do not participate. The World Championships receive far less media coverage in Canada than North American competitions do. In the United States, few sports fans are even aware the tournament exists. In the hockey-playing countries of Europe, however, the World Championships are one of the major events on the sports calendar.
[edit] IIHF European Championships
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1910 |  |
 |
 |
Les Avants |
| 1911 |  |
|
|
|
| 1912 | Cancelled | |||
| 1913 | |
|
|
|
| 1914 | |
|
|
|
| No Championships 1915-1920 (World War I) | ||||
| 1921 |  |
 |
(only two teams) | |
| 1922 | |
|
 |
|
| 1923 | |
 |
|
|
| 1924 | |
|
|
|
| 1925 | |
 |
|
|
| 1926 | |
|
|
|
| 1927 | |
|
 |
|
| 1929 | |
 |
|
|
| 1932 | |
|
|
|
Notes
- Berlin 1932 was the last separate IIHF European Championship event.
- European Championships medals were awarded to the European participants of the IIHF World Championships until 1991.
[edit] IIHF World Championships
| Year | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Venue |
|---|---|---|---|---|
 |
 |
|
||
 |
|
|
||
| |
|
|
||
| 1930 | |
|
|
|
| 1931 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1933 | |
|
|
|
| 1934 | |
|
|
|
| 1935 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1937 | |
|
|
|
| 1938 | |
|
|
|
| 1939 | |
|
|
|
| No Championships 1940-1946 (World War II) | ||||
| 1947 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1949 | |
|
|
|
| 1950 | |
|
|
|
| 1951 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1953 | |
|
|
|
| 1954 |  |
|
|
|
| 1955 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1957 | |
|
|
|
| 1958 | |
|
|
|
| 1959 | |
|
|
|
 |
|
|
||
| 1961 | |
|
|
|
| 1962 | |
|
 |
|
| 1963 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1965 | |
|
|
|
| 1966 | |
|
 |
|
| 1967 | |
|
|
|
| |
|
|
||
| 1969 | |
|
|
|
| 1970 | |
|
|
|
| 1971 | |
|
|
|
| 1972 | |
|
|
|
| 1973 | |
|
|
|
| 1974 | |
|
|
|
| 1975 | |
|
|
|
| 1976 | |
|
|
|
| 1977 | |
|
|
|
| 1978 | |
|
|
|
| 1979 | |
|
|
|
| 1981 | |
|
|
|
| 1982 | |
|
|
|
| 1983 | |
|
|
|
| 1985 | |
|
|
|
| 1986 | |
|
|
|
| 1987 | |
|
|
|
| 1989 | |
|
|
|
| 1990 | |
|
|
|
| 1991 | |
|
|
|
| 1992 | |
 |
|
|
| 1993 |  |
|
 |
|
| 1994 | |
|
|
|
| 1995 | |
|
|
|
| 1996 | |
|
|
|
| 1997 | |
|
|
|
| 1998 | |
|
|
|
| 1999 | |
|
|
|
| 2000 | |
 |
|
St. Petersburg |
| 2001 | |
|||