The Winter Olympics - Men's Ice Hockey

SNOWKINGS CLASSIC CLIP - 1980 FINAL
See how the USA somehow beat the Soviet machine
in one of the most famous Olympic finals...

Double click the video for larger view

Strangely, the Men's Ice Hockey competition actually started out in the Summer Olympics, Canada claiming gold back in 1920 in Antwerp.

The competition was only open to amateur players until 1998, since when major stars from the likes of the NFL league have been allowed to compete.

There's also been a women's tournament at the Winter Olympics since the 1998 games in Nagano.

Ice Hockey Men's Olympic Champions

The list of winners of the Men's Ice Hockey at the Winter Olympics:

Games	Gold	Silver	Bronze
2006 Turin	Sweden	Finland	Czech Republic
2002 Salt Lake City	Canada	USA	Russia
1998 Nagano	Czech Republic	Russia	Finland
1994 Lillehammer	Sweden	Canada	Finland
1992 Albertville	Unified Team	Canada	Czechoslovakia
1988 Calgary	USSR	Finland	Sweden
1984 Sarajevo	USSR	Czechoslovakia	Sweden
1980 Lake Placid	USA	USSR	Sweden
1976 Innsbruck	USSR	Czechoslovakia	West Germany
1972 Sapporo	USSR	USA	Czechoslovakia
1968 Grenoble	USSR	Czechoslovakia	Canada
1964 Innsbruck	USSR	Sweden	Czechoslovakia
1960 Squaw Valley	USA	Canada	USSR
1956 Cortina d'Ampezzo	USSR	USA	Canada
1952 Oslo	Canada	USA	Sweden
1948 St Moritz	Canada	Czechoslovakia	Switzerland
1936 Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Great Britain	Canada	USA
1932 Lake Placid	Canada	USA	Germany
1928 St Moritz	Canada	Sweden	Switzerland
1924 Chamonix	Canada	USA	Great Britain
1920 Antwerp	Canada	USA	Czechoslovakia

Ice Hockey Men's Olympic Champions - Most Successful Nations

It's no surprise to see the Canadians and the Soviet Union dominating this table but what is surprsing is that, having totally hogged the gold medals in the early years of the tournament, it took the Canadians another 50 years to win gold again after 1952. The Soviet Union were the force in between this period, yet they haven't won gold since defeating Finland in 1988 (although they were part of the Unified Team that won in 1992). It's worth noting that the Soviet Union didn't compete until 1956, missing the first seven games.

Oh yes, and great to see Britain in this list, only one of seven nations to win Ice Hockey gold.

Number of Titles	Nation	Years
7	Canada	1920 1924 1928 1932 1948 1952 2002
7	USSR	1956 1964 1968 1972 1976 1984 1988
2	Sweden	1994 2006
2	USA	1960 1980
1	Czech Republic	1998
1	Great Britain	1936
1	Unified Team	1992

Keywords : Winter Olympics Men's Ice Hockey : list of best international ice hockey teams in history