Ice Hockey at the Olympics

The hockey tournament at the Olympics is the worlds most prestigious Ice hockey tournament. It is commonly placed above even the Stanley cup title although some would disagree with this statement and it differs from player to player which they desire more. It is of course hard to make a good comparison between the Stanley cup and the Olympics since the Stanley cup is a team achievement while the Olympics is a competition for national teams only. Whatever your thoughts on the Stanley cup VS the Olympics might be you are likely to agree that the Olympics at the very least is the most prestigious tournament in the world for national teams. The reason for this is partly because it is held only every four years but also due to the fact that the Olympics attract the very best players each nation has to offer. Even players that normally turn down invitations to be a part of the national team for the world championship usually says yes to the Olympics. The NHL takes a break to allow the players to join their national teams.

The mens Olympic tournament was introduced at the 1920 Summer Olympics and than moved to the winter Olympics before the 1924 winter Olympics. The womens tournament was introduced at the 1998 winter Olympics.

The Olympic tournament only allowed amateur players until 1988 and it would be another ten years until the NHL 1998 allowed their players to take part in the Olympic games. Today the Olympics is a play Off tournament but until 1988 it was a round robin tournament with medals award based on points earned.

The most successful team in Olympic history is Canada with the Soviet Union/Russia in second place. Just like is the case with the world championship you can see that Canada dominated the competition during early years. The Canadian dominance was followed by a period of dominance by the Soviet Union. Today there are more true contenders for the medals and the winner in each Olympics is harder to predict.

Below you can find tables of the medal winners in each Olympics as well as an overview of medals won:

Medals won