World Championships

The world championship of ice hockey is the most prestigious annual national hockey tournament in the world. The winter Olympics is more prestigious but they are only played every for years. The World championships has been played since 1920. The 1920 world championships where held as a part of the 1920 summer Olympics. The Olympics would continue to count as the world championship the years it was held until 1968 when an independent world champion started to be held even during Olympic years. The Ice Hockey World Championships are organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). The world championships are played usig a division system and only the A or first division tournament is considered the world championship. Which nations that play in the first division varies as teams are moved up and down depending on their achievements. Some nations have always played in the first division (even if the could theoretically be moved down if they had a bad year). These teams are Canada, Czech Republic , Finland, Russia and Sweden. The United states are also more or less a fixture in the first divisions but have not always played there and was moved up in 1985.

Each world championship contain 16 teams. The 16 teams are divided into two groups of 8 teams which plays each other in a preliminary round. The top 4 teams from each groups moves on to the playoffs. The playoff sees the loosing team eliminated from the tournament and the winning team moving on to the next round. The loosing teams in the Semi finals meet each other to play for the bronze.

During the early days of the world championships Canada was the dominant team, much like they are now in womens hockey. This was to last until the mid to late 50s when Canada and the Soviet Union started to fiercely compete for the medals. The soviet Union would then dominate the competitions for the 60s and 70s much like Canada had before. Since the 80s the competition has been more and more unpredictable as the top teams are more evenly matched.

Below you can see a table over winning teams and the total number of medals of each nation.

Year	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Host city (cities)	Host country
1920	Canada	United States	Czechoslovakia	Antwerp	Belgium
1924	Canada	United States	Great Britain	Chamonix	France
1928	Canada	Sweden	Switzerland	St. Moritz	Switzerland
1930	Canada	Germany	Switzerland	Chamonix Berlin Vienna	France Germany Austria
1931	Canada	United States	Austria	Krynica	Poland
1932	Canada	United States	Germany	Lake Placid	United States
1933	United States	Canada	Czechoslovakia	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1934	Canada	United States	Germany	Milan	Italy
1935	Canada	Switzerland	Great Britain	Davos	Switzerland
1936	Great Britain	Canada	United States	Garmisch-Partenkirchen	Germany
1937	Canada	Great Britain	Switzerland	London	Great Britain
1938	Canada	Great Britain	Czechoslovakia	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1939	Canada	United States	Switzerland	Zürich and Basel	Switzerland
1947	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Austria	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1948	Canada	Czechoslovakia	Switzerland	St. Moritz	Switzerland
1949	Czechoslovakia	Canada	United States	Stockholm	Sweden
1950	Canada	United States	Switzerland	London	Great Britain
1951	Canada	Sweden	Switzerland	Paris	France
1952	Canada	United States	Sweden	Oslo and Drammen	Norway
1953	Sweden	West Germany	Switzerland	Zürich and Basel	Switzerland
1954	Soviet Union	Canada	Sweden	Stockholm	Sweden
1955	Canada	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Krefeld, Dortmund and Cologne	West Germany
1956	Soviet Union	United States	Canada	Cortina	Italy
1957	Sweden	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Moscow	Soviet Union
1958	Canada	Soviet Union	Sweden	Oslo	Norway
1959	Canada	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Prague and Bratislava	Czechoslovakia
1960	United States	Canada	Soviet Union	Squaw Valley	United States
1961	Canada	Czechoslovakia	Soviet Union	Geneva and Lausanne	Switzerland
1962	Sweden	Canada	United States	Colorado Springs and Denver	United States
1963	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Stockholm	Sweden
1964	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Innsbruck	Austria
1965	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Tampere	Finland
1966	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Ljubljana	Yugoslavia
1967	Soviet Union	Sweden	Canada	Vienna	Austria
1968	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Grenoble	France
1969	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Stockholm	Sweden
1970	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Stockholm	Sweden
1971	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Bern and Geneva	Switzerland
1972	Czechoslovakia	Soviet Union	Sweden	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1973	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Moscow	Soviet Union
1974	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Helsinki	Finland
1975	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Munich and Düsseldorf	West Germany
1976	Czechoslovakia	Soviet Union	Sweden	Katowice	Poland
1977	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Soviet Union	Vienna	Austria
1978	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1979	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Sweden	Moscow	Soviet Union
1981	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Gothenburg and Stockholm	Sweden
1982	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Helsinki and Tampere	Finland
1983	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Düsseldorf, Dortmund and Munich	West Germany
1985	Czechoslovakia	Canada	Soviet Union	Prague	Czechoslovakia
1986	Soviet Union	Sweden	Canada	Moscow	Soviet Union
1987	Sweden	Soviet Union	Czechoslovakia	Vienna	Austria
1989	Soviet Union	Canada	Czechoslovakia	Stockholm and Södertälje	Sweden
1990	Soviet Union	Sweden	Czechoslovakia	Bern and Fribourg	Switzerland
1991	Sweden	Canada	Soviet Union	Turku, Helsinki and Tampere	Finland
1992	Sweden	Finland	Czechoslovakia	Prague and Bratislava	Czechoslovakia
1993	Russia/Soviet Union	Sweden	Czech Republic	Dortmund and Munich	Germany
1994	Canada	Finland	Sweden	Bolzano, Canazei and Milano	Italy
1995	Finland	Sweden	Canada	Stockholm and Gävle	Sweden
1996	Czech Republic	Canada	United States	Vienna	Austria
1997	Canada	Sweden	Czech Republic	Helsinki, Turku and Tampere	Finland
1998	Sweden	Finland	Czech Republic	Zürich and Basel	Switzerland
1999	Czech Republic	Finland	Sweden	Oslo, Lillehammer and Hamar	Norway
2000	Czech Republic	Slovakia	Finland	St. Petersburg	Russia
2001	Czech Republic	Finland	Sweden	Cologne, Hanover and Nuremberg	Germany
2002	Slovakia	Russia	Sweden	Gothenburg, Karlstad and Jönköping	Sweden
2003	Canada	Sweden	Slovakia	Helsinki, Tampere and Turku	Finland
2004	Canada	Sweden	United States	Prague and Ostrava	Czech Republic
2005	Czech Republic	Canada	Russia	Innsbruck and Vienna	Austria
2006	Sweden	Czech Republic	Finland	Riga	Latvia
2007	Canada	Finland	Russia	Moscow and Mytishchi	Russia
2008	Russia/Soviet Union	Canada	Finland	Halifax and Quebec City	Canada
2009	Russia/Soviet Union	Canada	Sweden	Kloten and Bern	Switzerland
2010	Czech Republic	Russia	Sweden	Cologne, Mannheim, and Gelsenkirchen	Germany
2011	Finland	Sweden	Czech Republic	Bratislava and Košice	Slovakia

Total number of medals for different nations.

Country	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Medals
Russia Soviet Union' Total:	3 22 25	2 7 9	2 5 7	7 34 41
Canada	24	13	9	46
Czech Republic Czechoslovakia Total:	6 6 12	1 12 13	4 16 20	11 34 45
Sweden	8	19	16	43
United States	2	9	5	16
Finland	2	6	3	11
Great Britain	1	2	2	5
Slovakia	1	1	1	3
Germany West Germany Total:	0 0 0	1 1 2	2 0 2	3 1 4
Switzerland	0	1	8	9
Austria	0	0	2	2