Ice hockey is a sport that is contested at the Winter Olympic Games . A men's ice hockey tournament has been held every Winter Olympics (starting in 1924); an ice hockey tournament was also held at the 1920 Summer Olympics. [1] From 1920 to 1968, the Olympics also acted as the Ice Hockey World Championships, and the two events occurred concurrently. [2] From 1920 until 1984, only amateur athletes were allowed to compete in the tournament, and players from the National Hockey League (NHL) were not allowed to compete. The countries that benefited most were the Soviet Bloc countries of Eastern Europe, where top athletes were state-sponsored while retaining their status as amateurs. [3] [4] In 1970, after a disagreement over the definition of amateur players, Canada withdrew from the tournament and did not send a team to the 1972 or 1976 Winter Olympics. [5] [6] In 1986, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) decided to allow professional athletes to compete in the Olympics, and starting in 1998, the NHL allowed its players to participate. [6] [7] Women's ice hockey was added in 1992 and the first tournament was held at the 1998 Winter Olympics. [8] [9] Both events have been held at every Olympic Games since. [1]
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In women's hockey, Canadians Jayna Hefford and Hayley Wickenheiser hold the record for total medals (five), having won four gold and one silver. Their teammate Caroline Ouellette also won four gold medals. Five other athletes have won four medals: three Canadians – Becky Kellar, Jennifer Botterill, and Marie-Philip Poulin with three gold and a silver – and three Americans - Angela Ruggiero, Jenny Potter (each with one gold, two silver and one bronze) and Julie Chu (three silver and one bronze).
Eight male athletes have won four medals: Russians Vladislav Tretiak (three gold, one silver) and Igor Kravchuk (two gold, one silver, one bronze), Czech Jiří Holík (two silver, two bronze) and five players from Finland, each with one silver and three bronze: Teemu Selänne, Kimmo Timonen, Saku Koivu, Jere Lehtinen and Ville Peltonen. Six have won three gold medals (all from Russia): Tretiak, Anatoli Firsov, Viktor Kuzkin, Andrei Khomutov, Alexander Ragulin and Vitali Davydov. [10]
From 1920 to 1952, teams from Canada dominated the men's tournament, winning six gold and one silver medal. Canada's dominance was broken only by Great Britain in 1936. The Soviet Union began competing at the Olympics in 1956 and won nine straight Olympic medals, including seven gold. The USSR's dominance was only broken by the United States in 1960 and 1980. The Soviet Union dissolved in 1991, and in 1992, a Unified Team composed mainly of former Soviet players won gold. Since then, the competition has been more even, with Canada winning three times, Sweden twice and the Czech Republic, Russia and Finland once each. Teams from Canada have won the most medals, with fifteen, including nine gold. As of the 2018 Winter Olympics, 90 medals (30 of each color) have been awarded to teams from 14 National Olympic Committees.
