International hockey, from Paris 1908 to Milan 2026.

The federation, 1908

The IIHF was founded on 15 May 1908 at 34 rue de Provence in Paris, under the name Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace (LIHG), with the Frenchman Louis Magnus as its first president. The IIHF's own timeline says delegates of four countries met on 15 and 16 May at Magnus's invitation, with Louis Planque as general secretary, and that Russia and Germany were invited but did not attend.

Which countries count as founders depends on which page you read, even within the IIHF:

• One IIHF history page says Belgium, France, Great Britain and Switzerland signed the founding document, and Bohemia joined later in 1908 as the fifth member.
• The IIHF's 1908 to 1913 timeline lists formal joining dates in late 1908: France on 20 October, Bohemia on 15 November, Great Britain on 19 November, Switzerland on 23 November and Belgium on 8 December.
• Wikipedia counts Bohemia among the founders.

The second congress, at Chamonix from 22 to 25 January 1909, adopted the federation's own playing rules and decided to hold a European championship every year. Germany joined on 19 September 1909. The first European Championship was played at Les Avants, near Montreux, from 10 to 12 January 1910, with Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland as official entrants and a team of Canadian students, the Oxford Canadiens, playing unofficially. Wikipedia says Great Britain won.

The IIHF timeline records that Russia was admitted in February 1911, and that the March 1912 congress in Brussels admitted Austria, Sweden and Luxembourg, annulled the 1912 European Championship in Prague after a German protest (Austria had played before it was a member) and replaced Magnus as president with Henri van den Bulcke. Magnus entered the IIHF Hall of Fame in 1997, according to Wikipedia.

Olympic hockey begins, 1920

Ice hockey's Olympic debut came at the Antwerp Summer Games, played from 23 to 29 April 1920 at the Palais de Glace. NHL.com explains that the rink's managers made hockey a condition of letting figure skating use the ice, that the IOC had earlier turned hockey down for lack of European interest, and that Canada and the United States learned only about two months ahead that it would be on the programme.

The tournament was seven a side (six skaters plus a rover) in two 20-minute halves without substitutions, under "Canadian rules" written by William Hewitt. Canada was represented by the Winnipeg Falcons, who beat Czechoslovakia 15-0, the United States 2-0 and Sweden 12-1 in the final on 26 April. The United States took silver and Czechoslovakia bronze. NHL.com notes that the 1920 tournament also counts as the first official world championship.

The Canadian Olympic Hall of Fame says the Falcons were formed by players of Icelandic descent who had been shut out of Winnipeg's senior hockey, that every player enlisted in 1916, and that two of them, Frank "Buster" Thorsteinson and George Cumbers, died in the war. Frank Fredrickson scored 12 of the team's 29 Olympic goals. The Hall dates the club's founding to 1911; Wikipedia, according to a search summary, gives 1908.

The World Championships

Wikipedia's World Championships article supplies most of this section. Every Olympic tournament from 1920 to 1968 also counted as the World Championship, and from 1972 the two were held separately. The first standalone World Championship was played in 1930 in Chamonix, Vienna and Berlin with twelve nations, and Canada, represented by the Toronto CCMs, beat Germany for gold.

The Soviet Union first entered in 1954 in Stockholm. A search summary of the IIHF Hall of Fame entry for that team says it beat Canada 7-2 in the deciding game on 7 March 1954 and won gold. According to Wikipedia, the Soviets went on to win 20 of the 26 World Championships held from 1963 to 1991.

Canada withdrew from IIHF competition in 1970 after a plan to let it use some professional players was reversed. Professionals were admitted from 1977, and Canada returned that year in Vienna. Russia first competed as an independent nation in 1992 and won its first title in 1993; Czechoslovakia split in January 1993, and the Czech Republic won its first title as a separate country in 1996. Canada holds the record for men's world titles; AP reported its 2023 win over Germany as a record 28th, the same total Wikipedia gave when read in October 2026. Recent results, including Finland's 2026 title, are on the World Championships page.

The 1972 Summit Series

The Canadian Museum of History traces the series to a 1968 task force set up by Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau, which led to the creation of Hockey Canada, and to an agreement between Trudeau and Soviet Premier Alexei Kosygin that a series would help relations. It was eight games, four in Canadian cities and four in Moscow. The Soviets won Game 1 by 7-3, and after a loss in Game 4 in Vancouver Canadian fans booed their own team off the ice.

Canada won the last three games in Moscow to take the series four wins to three with one tie. Paul Henderson scored the winner with 34 seconds left in Game 8, on 28 September 1972; search summaries of NHL.com say the goal beat goaltender Vladislav Tretiak for a 6-5 win. The museum says the Summit Series team is the only team inducted into Canada's Sports Hall of Fame, and that the Canadian Press named it the team of the century.

The 1980 Miracle on Ice

Wikipedia's account: on 22 February 1980 at the Olympic Center in Lake Placid, New York, a United States team of amateur and college players coached by Herb Brooks beat the Soviet Union 4-3. Captain Mike Eruzione scored the go-ahead goal in the third period and Jim Craig was in goal. The Soviets had won five of the previous six Olympic golds and had beaten the Americans 10-3 in an exhibition at Madison Square Garden on 9 February 1980. The win was not the final. The United States still had to beat Finland, which it did 4-2 on 24 February 1980 to take gold.

At its centennial gala in Quebec City on 17 May 2008, the IIHF named the Miracle on Ice the top international hockey story of its first 100 years, according to The Hockey News. Henderson's 1972 goal was second and the Soviets' 7-3 win in Game 1 of the Summit Series third.

NHL players at the Olympics

NHL players first took part at Nagano in 1998, where the Czech Republic won gold, Petr Svoboda scoring the only goal of the final against Russia. With NHL players, Canada won in 2002 (over the United States), 2010 (3-2 in overtime over the United States, on a Sidney Crosby goal) and 2014, and Sweden won in 2006. The NHL took part in five straight Games from 1998 to 2014. No deal was reached for 2018, and plans for 2022 were dropped because of the COVID-19 pandemic, according to reports summarised from Awful Announcing and CBS Sports.

NHL players returned at Milan Cortina in February 2026, the league's sixth Olympic men's tournament. The United States beat Canada 2-1 in overtime in the final on 22 February 2026, on the 46th anniversary of the Miracle on Ice, with Jack Hughes scoring the winner. NBC reports it was the United States men's third Olympic gold, after 1960 and 1980. Full results are on the Olympic hockey page, and the women's game has its own history page.