who has won the most ice hockey world championships
List of IIHF World Championship medalists As of 2016, 81 tournaments have been staged. From 1920 to 1930, the Winter Olympic Games Ice Hockey Tournaments held counted as the World Championships and no tournaments in between were held. No championships were held from 1940 to 1946 due to World War II, nor during the Olympic years 1980, 1984 and 1988.[4] Ten nations have won a gold medal at the World Championships and a total of fourteen have won medals. Canada has won 48 medals, the most of any nation. The Soviet Union, which began competing in 1954 and last competed in 1991, captured a medal in every tournament they entered.[1] In winning the 2006 World Championships, Sweden became the first nation in sports history to win an Olympic gold as well as a separate World Championship in the same season.[5]
Ice hockey at the Olympic Games The first Olympic ice hockey tournament took place at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium.[3] At the time, organized international ice hockey was still relatively new.[4] The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the sport's governing body, was created on May 15, 1908, under the name Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace.[5] At the 1914 Olympic Congress in Paris, ice hockey was added to the list of optional sports that Olympics organizers could include.[6] The decision to include ice hockey for the 1920 Summer Olympics was made in January, three months before the start of the Games.[7] Several occurrences led to the sport's inclusion in the programme. Five European nations had committed to participating in the tournament and the managers of Antwerp's Palais de Glace stadium refused to allow the building to be used for figure skating unless ice hockey was included.[7] The IIHF considers the 1920 tournament to be the first Ice Hockey World Championship. From then on, the two events occurred concurrently, and every Olympic tournament until 1968 is counted as the World Championship.[8] The Olympic Games were originally intended for amateur athletes, so the players of the National Hockey League (NHL) and other professional leagues were not allowed to play.[9]