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Winter Olympic Games Facts

Check out our fun Winter Olympic Games facts for kids. Learn which countries have been the most successful at the Winter Olympics, which athletes have won a medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, how the Jamaican bobsleigh team inspired a movie and much more.

Following the success of the Summer Olympics the first Winter Olympic Games were held in 1924, in Chamonix, France.

The United States has hosted the Winter Olympics a record four times. Lake Placid in 1932 and 1980, Squaw Valley in 1960, and Salt Lake City in 2002.

No country in the Southern Hemisphere has ever hosted a Winter Olympics.

The Winter Olympics were held in the same year as the Summer Olympics until 1992. The Winter Olympics were then held just two years later in 1994 so the events could begin separate four-year cycles (two years apart).

Before the Winter Olympics began in 1924, ice figure skating was part of the Summer Olympics in 1908 and again in 1920 (along with ice hockey).

Twelve countries have sent athletes to every Winter Olympics: Austria, Canada, Finland, France, Great Britain, Hungary, Italy, Norway, Poland, Sweden, Switzerland and the United States.

Six of those countries have won a medal at every games: Austria, Canada, Finland, Norway, Sweden and the US.

Norway has won the most gold (118), the most silver (111), the most bronze (100) and the most total medals (329) of any nation at the Winter Olympics (as of 2014, after the Sochi games).

The 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi saw a record number of 2,800 participants, from a record 88 countries, competing in 7 sports over a record 98 events.

Four athletes have won medals at the Summer and Winter Olympic: Eddie Eagan (USA), Jacob Tullin Thams (Norway), Christa Luding-Rothenburger (East Germany), and Clara Hughes (Canada).

American Eddie Eagan is the only person in history to have won a gold medal at both the Winter and Summer Olympics. Light-heavyweight boxing gold at Antwerp in 1920 and gold in the four-man bobsled team at Lake Placid in 1932.

Before the start of the 2014 Games in Sochi, the Olympic torch traveled the longest distance in history to some amazing places, including the North Pole, the bottom of Lake Baikal (the world's deepest lake), the top of Mount Elbrus (Europe's highest mountain), and even into outer space.

Walt Disney was chairman of the opening and closing ceremonies at the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California. His opening ceremony included 5,000 entertainers, the release of 2,000 pigeons, and a military gun salute.

The movie 'Cool Runnings' is inspired by the true Olympic story of the Jamaican national bobsleigh team who debuted at the 1988 Winter Games in Alberta, Canada, and came into the games as underdogs.

Military patrol was in the 1924 Winter Games and was a demonstration sport in 3 other Games. Athletes (often military units) competed in cross-country skiing, ski mountaineering and rifle shooting. The event was later to become the Biathlon.

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Winter Olympic Games Facts Check out our fun Winter Olympic Games facts for kids. Learn which countries have been the most successful at the Winter Olympics, which athletes have won a medal at both the Summer and Winter Olympics, how the Jamaican bobsleigh team inspired a movie and much more.

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The First Winter Olympics

Part 1: Action at the Games

The Winter Olympics first took place in 1924, in Chamonix, France. A total of 16 nations sent athletes, totaling 258 (247 men and 11 women). The Games were actually called "The International Winter Sports Week" and went on for 11 days, from January 25 to February 5. The number of events staged that year was 16.

The events that year were these:

4-man bobsled

Biathlon

Curling

Figure skating (men's, women's, pairs)

Hockey

Cross country Skiing (18k, 50k)

Ski jumping

Nordic combined skiing

Speed skating (500m, 1500m, 5000m, 10,000m, combined)

The very first event was the 500-meter speed skating, which was won by Charlie Jewtraw, an American. The big winners, though, were Finland and Norway. Between them, they won 28 of the 43 medals awarded. Norway had 17; Finland had 11; the U.S. and Great Britain got 4; Austria, Switzerland, and France received 3; Sweden won 2; and Canada got 1.

Clas Thunberg from Finland won three gold medals (and five overall) in speed skating. Thorleif Haug from Norway won three gold medals in cross-country skiing and the nordic combined. His countryman Roald Larsen won five medals in speed skating, two silvers and three bronzes.

One fantastic story involved American Anders Haugen and the ski jump. Haug, the Norwegian, was named third place and received the bronze medal. But recalculations many years later uncovered a scoring error and vaulted Haugen into third place. He finally got the medal in 1974, when he was 83.

An even more remarkable story was the hockey tournament. Canada at that time was an extremely dominant team, and it showed. In the first game, they beat Switzerland 33-0. Next, it was Czechoslovakia getting pummeled 30-0. After beating Sweden 22-0, Canada then defeated Great Britain 19-2. The Canadians finally won the gold medal with a 6-1 victory over the United States in the final. It was Canada's only medal of the Games.

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The First Winter Olympics Part 1: Action at the Games The Winter Olympics first took place in 1924, in Chamonix, France. A total of 16 nations sent athletes, totaling 258 (247 men and 11 women). The Games were actually called "The International Winter Sports Week" and went on for 11 days, from January 25 to February 5.

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PyeongChang 2018 Olympic Winter Games | CBC Kids

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Play free kids games, watch Olympic sports videos, explore activities, quizzes and fun facts.

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The 2022 Winter Olympics, in Beijing, China.

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Click on the individual files in the list

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The Winter Olympics1924 Olympics1928 Olympics1932 Olympics1936 Olympics1948 Olympics1952 Olympics1956 Olympics1960 Olympics1964 Olympics1968 Olympics1972 Olympics1976 Olympics1980 Olympics1984 Olympics1988 Olympics1992 Olympics1994 Olympics1998 Olympics2002 Olympics 2006 Olympics 2010 Olympics 2014 Olympics Event-by-EventAthletes with Winter and Summer MedalsAll-Time Leading Medal WinnersAll-Time Leading USA MedalistsAll-Time Medal Standings, 1924-2006See also: Olympics TimelineWinter Olympic Memorable MomentsThe Olympic Games SummaryOlympicsSummer Olympics Through The Years

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Sometimes things don't go as planned

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Olympics | Olympic Games, Medals, Results, News | IOC

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Science In Sport - Team Pursuit Speed Skating | Faster Higher Stronger

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Canada's Denny Morrison discusses the strategy, science and technique of the Team Persuit Speed Skating event and the team-work that won gold for his Vancouver 2010 team in this instalment of the Faster Higher Stronger series.

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Science In Sport - The Evolution Of The Curling Broom | Faster Higher Stronger - YouTube

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Canada's John Morris gives us an in-depth into the history of the Curling Broom, looking at the Broom's evolution of design, functionality and technique of use in the sport and it's effect on the sport of Curling.

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Olympic Curling - Beginners Guide | 90 Seconds Of The Olympics

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Luge Stories to Watch at PyeongChang 2018 | Olympic Winter Games

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Felix Loch, Natalie Geisenberger, Erin Hamlin and the Sics brothers: just some of the top luge athletes to watch at PyeongChang2018.

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Nordic Combined Stories to Watch at PyeongChang 2018 | Olympic Winter Games

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Nordic Combined challenges in both air and snow. Who to follow? Try Eric Frenzel, Magnus Moan, Akito Watabe, and Jorgen Graabak.

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Speed Skating Stories to Watch at PyeongChang 2018 | Olympic Winter Games

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Snowboard Stories to Watch at PyeongChang 2018 | Olympic Winter Games

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With 'Big Air' entering the Olympic Games for the first time, find the Stories to Watch in Snowboard during PyeongChang 2018.

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With the Sochi 2014 Olympics fast approaching we look back at some of the greatest moments in the history of the Winter Games. With highlights featuring some of your favorite Winter Olympians we have everything you need to get ready for Sochi 2014 right here!

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USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation - Features, Events, Results | Team USA

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The latest news, events and results for USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation from the USOC official site.

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The latest news, events and results for USA Curling from the USOC official site.

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USA Hockey provides the foundation for the sport of ice hockey in America; helps young people become leaders, even Olympic heroes; and connects the game at every level while promoting a lifelong love of the sport.

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USA Luge - Features, Events, Results | Team USA

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The latest news, events and results for USA Luge from the USOC official site.

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For the first time since 1998, Team USA qualified all four athletes into an Olympic ski jumping medal round. Kevin Bickner (Wauconda, Ill.) led the way in Thursday's qualifying soaring 114.0 meters to finish 25th. He will be joined in Saturday night's competition by teammates Michael Glasder (Cary, Ill.), Will Rhoads (Park City, Utah) and junior Casey Larson (Barrington, Ill.).

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US Speedskating - Speed Skating, Athletes, Features, Events, Results | Team USA

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The latest Speedskating News, Athletes, Events and Results for US Speedskating from the USOC official site.

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This original video collection explores the physics, biology, chemistry, and math behind the Olympic Winter Games.

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NBC Learn has teamed up with the National Science Foundation to produce Science of the Olympic Winter Games, a 16-part video series that explores the science behind individual Olympic events.

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Advertisement

In the sport of skeleton, where athletes called "sliders" hurtle face first atop a sled the size of a seat cushion down an iced-over concrete track at speeds upwards of 110 kilometers per hour, the smallest details separate success and failure. Any aspect of a skeleton run that is not completely in sync-including the slider's outfit, helmet, body position or the sled's orientation-can cost hundredths of a second, an eternity in this sport.

The U.S. Olympic skeleton team, which hits the track this week at the Vancouver games, has their approach down to a science, thanks to some high-tech help from researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute (RPI) in Troy, N.Y. Engineering professor Timothy Wei and his team built a custom-made skeleton simulator to study a slider's greatest opponent-wind resistance.

"As the athlete goes downhill on the track, they push off with their feet, and what propels them from then on is gravity," Wei says. The three factors working against them are wind resistance (which the RPI researchers have measured), the sled's orientation (keeping it straight to avoid friction), and the slider's ability to run the shortest line down the track (a trick mastered by racecar drivers).

"We built a false bobsled track section and used load cells on the track to measure force," Wei says. This simulator mimicked the dimensions of an actual skeleton track, which is about a half of a meter deep and a little over one meter wide. The sled, which can be as wide as 20 centimeters and as long as 120 centimeters, rested on pads equipped with load cells used to measure force exerted downward by the slider, who could also see feeds from two cameras (one looking down on the slider and the other positioned to the side) on a monitor viewable through a hole cut into the bottom of the track (sliders lie facedown on their sleds). "The athlete can see in real time the affect of their movement on airflow and drag," Wei says. "You know the forces, but you'd also like to know what the flow looks like."

The monitor that the sliders could that see through the bottom of the track was crucial to the experiment. "It's a training tool, so wanted the athletes to have the information directly," says Steve Peters, the U.S. skeleton team's technology coordinator. "We were able to identify trends in terms of what positions work better; some of it was even counterintuitive. Some of this we knew already, but we didn't have the data to back it up."

The simulated track sat at the end of a wind tunnel, which blew air at nearly 100 kilometers per hour. To make wind flow more visible, the researchers introduced fog (the kind used in theater productions) lit up by a green laser beam that created a two-dimensional plane directed over the shoulders of the sliders laying in the simulator. The side camera focused on that plane to provide better perspective on the wind flow.

The skeleton team had done some wind tunnel testing in the past, "but wind-tunnel time is very expensive and we are a low-budget sport for sure," Peters says. "Still, we want to be able to test different positions and equipment."

Wei was already known to the Olympic community through his work with the U.S. swim team. For the past several years, he has been using Digital Particle Image Velocimetry (DPIV) and other measurement techniques to better understand how swimmers interact with pool water.

Ten members of the skeleton team tried the RPI simulator, using different helmets, suits and body positions to determine which combination gave them the best body flow and the least amount of drag. The team determined that different helmet styles work better for different sliders, which means it is important that each slider find the helmet best suited to the way they ride the sled. "Skeleton is very unique to the individual so that's why this testing was so important," Peters says.

Skeleton is a spinoff of a form of tobogganing called cresta sledding, which uses a similar sled and face down position. However, cresta riders use skates on their feet to help steer and brake the sled (skeleton sliders use only their bodies to guide the sled). Skeleton is run on the same type of track used by bobsleds and luge, another sport that involves hurtling oneself along an icy track with only a small sled between the rider and the ice. In luge, however, the rider is positioned face up and feet first on the sled, and speeds can reach 160 kilometers per hour. Luge racers were approaching speeds of up to 155 kilometers per hour during training runs last week in Vancouver when Georgian luge racer Nodar Kumaritashvili was killed during an accident.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR(S)

Larry Greenemeier

Larry Greenemeier is the associate editor of technology for Scientific American, covering a variety of tech-related topics, including biotech, computers, military tech, nanotech and robots.

Credit: Nick Higgins

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U.S. Olympic Skeleton Team Studies Sled Forces in High-Tech Simulator

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In the sport of skeleton, where athletes called "sliders" hurtle face first atop a sled the size of a seat cushion down an iced-over concrete track at speeds upwards of 110 kilometers per hour, the smallest details separate success and failure.

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Winter Olympic Sports

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Exploring the science and tech behind the world's greatest winter sports competition.

A small Scottish island is now the sole source of Olympic curling stone granite.

For Olympians, there's interplay between natural athletic ability and suits that provide that extra edge.

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Deep in an abandoned gold mine in rural South Dakota, a team of physicists are hunting for astrophysical treasure.

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The Science of the Winter Olympics - Science Friday

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Exploring the science and tech behind the world's greatest winter sports competition. A small Scottish island is now the sole source of Olympic curling stone granite. For Olympians, there's interplay between natural athletic ability and suits that provide that extra edge.

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Science of the Winter Olympics - Bobsledding

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The winter games in Vancouver provide a chance for the United States' four-man bobsled team to win its first gold medal in more than 60 years.

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Huffington Post

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What makes figure skaters so graceful on the ice? It's a question many will be asking during the upcoming winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia.

Sure, figure skating is all about skill and practice -- lots of practice. But ultimately it's about science. Just check out the video above from the National Science Foundation and NBC Learn that spotlights the fascinating physics behind figure skating.

As the video explains, skating is all about the skater's center of gravity -- which for optimal balance during a spin, must stay directly above the so-called "point of support," where the skates touch the ice.

Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

The video also shows how skating showcases the physics principle that an object's vertical and horizontal velocities operate independently from each other. You see this principle play out best when a skater launches into a salchow or axel, or when a pair skater tosses up and then catches his partner.

"The vertical velocity will be affected by gravity, whereas horizontal velocity will be constant. And so those two velocities, that which moves me horizontally and that which moves me vertically, are independent of one another," Dr. Brad Orr, head of the physics department at the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor, says in the video.

Is figure skating not your cup of tea? Keep reading for fascinating ways sports and science will come together at the 2014 Sochi Olympic Winter Games in these three other videos released by the NSF and NBC ( all segments can be viewed on the NSF website):

Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

What's up with the way snowboarders defy gravity? Engineers have figured out a way to hone the half-pipe so snowboarders can get even more air time. The half-pipe for the Sochi games is a massive 22 feet high, 65 feet wide, and 557 feet long. As they ride up the curve of a half-pipe and then change direction, snowboarders can experience up to two G's of force due to a phenomenon called centripetal acceleration.

Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Physics can reveal the secret behind nailing high-soaring tricks on the slopes. Just two words: Angular momentum. Many athletes will be taking advantage of this physics principle when the slopestyle skiing event makes its debut at this year's winter games.

Credit: NBC Learn and the National Science Foundation (NSF)

Meanwhile, the secret to becoming a speed skating success is pretty simple -- it's about aerodynamics as well as technique and raw power. After all, "drag" is the component of friction that occurs when a solid body moves through a fluid, like air or water -- and so, the resistance of the air moving across a speedskater's body is a huge impediment. Makes sense!

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WATCH: The Fascinating Physics Of Figure Skating

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What makes figure skaters so graceful on the ice? It's a question many will be asking during the upcoming winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. Sure, figure skating is all about skill and practice -- lots of practice. But ultimately it's about science.

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Shows date schedule of the sports

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PyeongChang Olympics | Next Winter Games in Korea

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PyeongChang will host the XXIII Olympic Winter Games, 9-25 Feb. Find voting results and all the latest news as South Korea prepares for the Games.

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Winter Olympic Resources
Facts
Facts
 Winter Olympic Games Facts for Kids
Winter Olympic Games Facts for Kids
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Enchanted Learning
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 The Olympics - EnchantedLearning.com
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Advertisement. EnchantedLearning.com is a user-supported site. As a bonus, site members have access to a banner-ad-free version of the site, with print-friendly pages. Click here to learn more. (Already a member? Click here.) EnchantedLearning.com The Olympic Games 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia The 2014 Winter Olympics were in Sochi, Russia.
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Bobsled
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 USA Bobsled and Skeleton Federation - Features, Events, Results | Team USA
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USA Hockey provides the foundation for the sport of ice hockey in America; helps young people become leaders, even Olympic heroes; and connects the game at every level while promoting a lifelong love of the sport.
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For the first time since 1998, Team USA qualified all four athletes into an Olympic ski jumping medal round. Kevin Bickner (Wauconda, Ill.) led the way in Thursday's qualifying soaring 114.0 meters to finish 25th. He will be joined in Saturday night's competition by teammates Michael Glasder (Cary, Ill.), Will Rhoads (Park City, Utah) and junior Casey Larson (Barrington, Ill.).
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 US Speedskating - Speed Skating, Athletes, Features, Events, Results | Team USA
US Speedskating - Speed Skating, Athletes, Features, Events, Results | Team USA
The latest Speedskating News, Athletes, Events and Results for US Speedskating from the USOC official site.
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Official 2018 Winter Olympic schedule and results. View the competition schedule by day or by sport for the PyeongChang Olympics (9-25 Feb). Find results as they happen which athletes are taking home medals for which countries. Don't miss a minute of the most exciting winter sports event.
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The Winter Olympics1924 Olympics1928 Olympics1932 Olympics1936 Olympics1948 Olympics1952 Olympics1956 Olympics1960 Olympics1964 Olympics1968 Olympics1972 Olympics1976 Olympics1980 Olympics1984 Olympics1988 Olympics1992 Olympics1994 Olympics1998 Olympics2002 Olympics 2006 Olympics 2010 Olympics 2014 Olympics Event-by-EventAthletes with Winter and Summer MedalsAll-Time Leading Medal WinnersAll-Time Leading USA MedalistsAll-Time Medal Standings, 1924-2006See also: Olympics TimelineWinter Olympic Memorable MomentsThe Olympic Games SummaryOlympicsSummer Olympics Through The Years
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Science of Speedskating
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 Science In Sport - Team Pursuit Speed Skating | Faster Higher Stronger
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Canada's Denny Morrison discusses the strategy, science and technique of the Team Persuit Speed Skating event and the team-work that won gold for his Vancouver 2010 team in this instalment of the Faster Higher Stronger series.
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 Science In Sport - The Evolution Of The Curling Broom | Faster Higher Stronger - YouTube
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Canada's John Morris gives us an in-depth into the history of the Curling Broom, looking at the Broom's evolution of design, functionality and technique of use in the sport and it's effect on the sport of Curling.
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Olympic Curling - Beginners Guide | 90 Seconds Of The Olympics
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Luge Stories to Watch


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Felix Loch, Natalie Geisenberger, Erin Hamlin and the Sics brothers: just some of the top luge athletes to watch at PyeongChang2018.
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Learn why Sven Kramer, Joey Mantia and the married Bergsmas are the ones to watch at the 2018 Olympic Winter Games.
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Alpine Skiing Stories to Watch
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With 'Big Air' entering the Olympic Games for the first time, find the Stories to Watch in Snowboard during PyeongChang 2018.
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Best of the Winter Olympics
Best of the Winter Olympics 
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With the Sochi 2014 Olympics fast approaching we look back at some of the greatest moments in the history of the Winter Games. With highlights featuring some of your favorite Winter Olympians we have everything you need to get ready for Sochi 2014 right here!
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Science of Bobsledding
Science of Bobsledding
 Science of the Winter Olympics - Bobsledding
Science of the Winter Olympics - Bobsledding
The winter games in Vancouver provide a chance for the United States' four-man bobsled team to win its first gold medal in more than 60 years.
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 Science of the Winter Olympics
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NBC Learn has teamed up with the National Science Foundation to produce Science of the Olympic Winter Games, a 16-part video series that explores the science behind individual Olympic events.
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Skeleton Science
Skeleton Science
 U.S. Olympic Skeleton Team Studies Sled Forces in High-Tech Simulator
U.S. Olympic Skeleton Team Studies Sled Forces in High-Tech Simulator
In the sport of skeleton, where athletes called "sliders" hurtle face first atop a sled the size of a seat cushion down an iced-over concrete track at speeds upwards of 110 kilometers per hour, the smallest details separate success and failure.
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Science Friday
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 The Science of the Winter Olympics - Science Friday
The Science of the Winter Olympics - Science Friday
Exploring the science and tech behind the world's greatest winter sports competition. A small Scottish island is now the sole source of Olympic curling stone granite. For Olympians, there's interplay between natural athletic ability and suits that provide that extra edge.
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Science of Winter Olympic Sports
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 WATCH: The Fascinating Physics Of Figure Skating
WATCH: The Fascinating Physics Of Figure Skating
What makes figure skaters so graceful on the ice? It's a question many will be asking during the upcoming winter Olympic games in Sochi, Russia. Sure, figure skating is all about skill and practice -- lots of practice. But ultimately it's about science.
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Check out the 2018 NHL All-Star Skills Competition

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The greatest talent from around the NHL gathers at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay to showcase what they do best at the Skills Competition, as part of 2018 All-Star Weekend For the latest hockey action, subscribe to our channel by clicking the big, red shiny SUBSCRIBE button Watch live hockey wherever you are: https://www.nhl.com/tv Breaking news, scores, stats, analysis & real-time highlights: https://www.nhl.com Feeling social?

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Check out the 2018 NHL All-Star Skills Competition

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The greatest talent from around the NHL gathers at Amalie Arena in Tampa Bay to showcase what they do best at the Skills Competition, as part of 2018 All-Star Weekend For the latest hockey action, subscribe to our channel by clicking the big, red shiny SUBSCRIBE button Watch live hockey wherever you are: https://www.nhl.com/tv Breaking news, scores, stats, analysis & real-time highlights: https://www.nhl.com Feeling social?

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Bobsled news, videos, live streams, schedule, results, medals, photos and more from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

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Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, also known as FIBT from the French Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing. National competitions are often governed by bodies such as the United States Bobsled and Skeleton Federation, Bobsleigh Canada Skeleton, and the German Bobsleigh, Luge, and Skeleton Federation.

The first bobsleds were built in the late 19th century in St. Moritz, Switzerland, by wealthy tourists from Victorian Britain who were staying at the Palace Hotel owned by Caspar Badrutt. The early sleds were adapted from boys' delivery sleds and toboggans. These eventually evolved into bobsleighs, luges and skeletons. Initially the tourists would race their hand-built contraptions down the narrow streets of St. Moritz; however, as collisions increased, growing opposition from St. Moritz residents led to bobsledding being eventually banned from public highways. In the winter of 1884, Badrutt had a purpose-built run constructed near the hamlet of Cresta. The Cresta Run remains the oldest in the world and is the home of the St. Moritz Tobogganing Club. It has hosted two Olympic Winter Games and as of 2022 was still in use.

Modern bobsleigh teams compete to complete a downhill route in the fastest times. An aggregate time from several runs is used to determine the winners. The four-man event has been featured since the first Winter Games in 1924 in Chamonix, France. The only exception was the 1960 games in Squaw Valley when the organizing committee decided not to build a track to reduce costs. The two-man event was introduced at the 1932 games and a two-woman event was first contested at the 2002 Winter Olympics. The women's monobob event was introduced in the 2022 games.

The name is derived from the action some early competitors adopted of bobbing back and forth inside their sleds to increase speed.

Although sledding on snow or ice had long been popular in many northern countries, the origins of bobsleighing as a modern sport are relatively recent.

It developed after hotelier Caspar Badrutt (1848-1904) convinced some wealthy English regular guests to remain through the entire winter at his hotel in the mineral spa town of St. Moritz, Switzerland. He had been frustrated that his hotel was only busy during the summer months. By keeping his guests entertained with food, alcohol and activities, he quickly established the concept of "winter resorting". Within a few years, wintering at Badrutt's St. Moritz hotel became very fashionable in Victorian Britain. However, with increased numbers this led some guests to search for new diversions. In the early 1870s some adventurous Englishmen began adapting boys' delivery sleds for recreational purposes.

However, when they began colliding with pedestrians in the icy lanes, alleyways and roads of St. Moritz, this led to the invention of "steering means" for the sleds. The basic bobsleigh (bobsled) consisted of two crestas (skeleton sleds) attached together with a board that had a steering mechanism at the front. The ability to steer meant the sleds could make longer runs through the town. Longer runs also meant higher speeds on curves. Local sentiment about these informal competitions varied, but eventually complaints grew so vociferous that Badrutt had to do something. His solution, in the late 1870s, was to build a basic natural-ice run for his guests outside the town near the small hamlet named Cresta. He took action because he did not want to make enemies in the town, and he had worked hard and invested a lot of time and money in popularizing wintering in St. Moritz, so he was not going to let boredom induce customers not to visit the area.

Formal competitions began down the natural-ice Cresta Run in 1884, which was built in an annual partnership between guests and local people. The run, which was still in operation as of 2014, has served as a host track for skeleton at two Winter Olympic Games ( 1928 and 1948). As one of the few natural weather tracks in the world, it does not use artificial refrigeration. It is not known how much the original track evolved in the early years as the three sports matured and stabilized. The first club was formed in 1897, and the first purpose-built track solely for bobsleds opened in 1902 outside St. Moritz. Over the years, bobsleigh tracks evolved from straight runs to twisting and turning tracks. The original wooden sleds gave way to streamlined fiberglass and metal ones.

The International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) was founded in 1923. Men's four-man bobsleigh appeared in the first ever Winter Olympics in 1924, and the men's two-man bobsleigh event was added in 1932. Though not included in the 1960 Winter Olympics, bobsleigh has featured in every Winter Olympics since. Women's bobsleigh competition began in the US in 1983 with two demonstration races in Lake Placid, New York, one held in February and the second held during the World Cup races in March 1983. Women's two-woman bobsleigh made its Olympic debut at the 2002 Winter Olympics. Bobsleigh is also contested at American, European, and World Cup championships.

Germany and Switzerland have proven the most successful bobsleighing nations, measured by overall success in European, World, World Cup, and Olympic championships. Since the 1990s Germans have dominated in international competition, having won more medals than any other nation. Italy, Austria, Canada and the United States also have strong bobsleigh traditions.

Bobsleighs can attain speeds of 150 km/h (93 mph), with the reported world record being 201 km/h (125 mph)[citation needed ].

Modern tracks are made of concrete, coated with ice. They are required to have at least one straight section and one labyrinth (three turns in quick succession without a straight section). Ideally, a modern track should be 1,200 to 1,300 metres (3,900-4,300 ft) long and have at least fifteen curves. Speeds may exceed 120 kilometres per hour (75 mph), and some curves can subject the crews to as much as 5 g.

Some bobsleigh tracks are also used for luge and skeleton competition.

Some tracks offer tourists rides in bobsleighs, including those at Sigulda, Latvia; Innsbruck-Igls, Austria; Whistler, British Columbia, Canada; Lillehammer, Norway; Cesana Pariol, Italy; Lake Placid, US; Salt Lake City, Utah, US; and La Plagne, France.

Modern-day sleighs combine light metals, steel runners, and an aerodynamic composite body. Competition sleighs must be a maximum of 3.80 metres (12.5 ft) long (4-crew) or 2.70 metres (8.9 ft) long (2-crew). The runners on both are set at 0.67 metres (2.2 ft) gauge. Until the weight-limit rule was added in 1952, bobsleigh crews tended to be very heavy to ensure the greatest possible speed. Nowadays the maximum weight, including crew, is 630 kilograms (1,390 lb) (4-man), 390 kilograms (860 lb) (2-man), or 340 kilograms (750 lb) (2-woman), which can be reached via the addition of metal weights. The bobsleighs themselves are designed to be as light as possible to allow dynamic positioning of mass through the turns of the bobsleigh course.

Although bobsleighs once were ridden by five or six, crews were reduced in the 1930s to either two or four people. The four-person crew consists of a pilot, a brakeman, and two pushers. Athletes are selected for their speed and strength, which are necessary to push the sleigh to a competitive speed at the start of the race. Pilots must have the skill, timing, and finesse to steer the sleigh along the path, or "line", that will produce the greatest speed.

In modern bobsleighs, the steering system consists of two metal rings that actuate a pulley system located in the forward cowling that turns the front runners. For example, to turn left, the pilot would pull the left ring. Only subtle steering adjustments are necessary to guide the sled; at speeds up to 80 miles per hour (130 km/h), anything larger would result in a crash. The pilot does most of the steering, and the brakeman stops the sled after crossing the finish line by pulling the sled's brake lever.

Women compete in women's bobsleigh (which is always two-woman) and men in both two- and four-man competitions. Women were confirmed as being able to compete in any four-"man" bobsleigh event, as from 25 September 2014, either as part of a mixed-sex team or an all-female team. However, because women are on average lighter than men (and thus at a competitive disadvantage in a gravity sport), and because most sliding nations have fewer women able to compete than men, this option has not proved popular with teams.

A single-person bobsleigh is called a "monobob". Single-person sleds were introduced into international competition for both adaptive bobsleigh (for athletes who are able to drive a sled but not push) and as a youth sport (for younger athletes who have not yet developed the ability to push a heavy two- or four-person sled). After the 2018 Winter Olympics, the International Olympic Committee and the IBSF agreed to add women's monobob as an Olympic sport for the 2022 Winter Olympics, so that there would be an equal number of women's and men's events in bobsleigh.

Prior to the 2020-21 competitive season, monobobs were traditionally constructed on one-piece chassis. Starting with the 2020-21 season, competitors in IBSF-sanctioned races must use articulated (two-section) monobobs manufactured by the IBSF's sole source sled builder, iXent. The sled must weigh a minimum of 162 kg (357 lb) without the athlete (but including timing equipment and any ballast weights) and a maximum of 247 kg (545 lb) including the athlete; runners are the same as for two-person bobsleighs. This implies a maximum athlete weight limit of 85 kg (187 lb).

Individual runs down the course, or "heats", begin from a standing start, with the crew pushing the sled for up to 50 metres (160 ft) before boarding; though the pilot does not steer, grooves in the ice make steering unnecessary until the sled leaves the starting area. While poor form during the initial push can lose a team the heat, it is otherwise rarely, if ever, decisive. Over the rest of the course, a sleigh's speed depends on its weight, aerodynamics, runners, the condition of the ice, and the skill of the pilot.

Race times are recorded in hundredths of seconds, so even seemingly minor errors - especially those at the beginning, which affect the remainder of the heat - can have a measurable impact on the final race standings.

The men's and women's standings for normal races are calculated over the aggregate of two runs or heats. At the Olympic Winter Games and World Championships, all competitions (for both men and women) consist of four heats.

Sledding at a competitive level involves sledders repeatedly subjecting themselves to high-G forces and multiple small collisions of their head into their helmet as sharp turns are taken. Additionally, when mistakes happen and the sled crashes, there are no "seatbelts" or other protections; the sledders can simply be falling down the course at high speed with their helmet grinding along the surface or bouncing off the interior of the sled. One sledder described his experience during crashes as being equivalent to his head being inside a jet engine. Even ignoring crashes, repetitive shaking from small imperfections in the course is hypothesized to cause small tears in the brain, especially if performed repeatedly. The culture of competitive bobsledders (especially before this danger was recognized) also made injured participants hesitant to speak up and request breaks, fearful of being dropped from the team. Bobsledders who train frequently have reported issues such as chronic headaches, a heightened sensitivity to bright lights and loud noises, forgetfulness, a "mental fog", and psychological problems. Repeated mild brain trauma has caused issues for boxers, rugby players, and football players with chronic traumatic encephalopathy, and fears have arisen that bobsledding carries a similar danger, at least with the steeper and faster courses used in competitions. A brain scan of one bobsledder, Christina Smith, revealed damage to the rear and frontal lobes, consistent with micro-tears in the brain's white matter.

A significant number of athletes have either committed suicide or died of drug overdoses. Examples include medal-winning bobsledders Eugenio Monti and Pavle Jovanovic, who committed suicide; Steven Holcomb died of an overdose. Since 2013, three North American former bobsledders have taken their lives, another attempted it, and two others died of overdoses; this is far over expectation of the group from chance, as only a few hundred athletes participate seriously in bobsled and other sliding sports such as luge and skeleton at any one time.

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No

Competitor

Year

Track

Section

Race

Event

Vehicle

Oberüberl

1911

Practice run

5-man sled

1966

Zig-Zag Curves

Practice run

4-man sled

1971

Practice run

World Championships 1971

2-man sled

Giuseppe Soravia[11]

1980

Finish

Practice run

4-man sled

James Morgan[11]

1981

Finish

3rd heat

World Championships 1981

4-man sled

Imants Karlsons [11]

1982

Training session

Training

2-man sled

Daniel Oaida[11]

1989

Curve 4

Training session

Training

4-man sled

42

Yvonne Cernota[12][13]

2004

Echowand

Training session

Training

2-woman sled

Media related to Bobsleigh at Wikimedia Commons

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Bobsleigh or bobsled is a team winter sport that involves making timed runs down narrow, twisting, banked, iced tracks in a gravity-powered sleigh. International bobsleigh competitions are governed by the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation, also known as FIBT from the French Fédération Internationale de Bobsleigh et de Tobogganing.

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Skeleton is a winter sliding sport in which a person rides a small sled, known as a skeleton bobsled (or -sleigh), down a frozen track while lying face down (prone). Unlike other sliding sports of bobsleigh and luge, the race always involves single riders.

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Access official Olympic Skeleton sport and athlete records, events, results, photos, videos, news and more.

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Skeleton racing involves plummeting head-first down a steep and treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. It is considered the world's first sliding sport.

Thrill-seeking tourists

Sleighing is one of the oldest winter sports. Descriptions of the sport can be found in 16th-century literature, but as a racing sport it can be traced to the mid-19th century, when British tourists started sliding down snowbound roads in the Alps. British and American holidaymakers built the first toboggan run in Davos in 1882.

The Cresta run

Skeleton sled racing owes it entire early history to St Moritz and the famed Cresta Run. The sport developed in the Swiss resort town as a pursuit for the rich. E. F. Benson put it best when he wrote in 1913, "There is one Mecca, there is one St Peter's, and there is one Cresta."

Olympic history

Men's skeleton made two early appearances on the Olympic programme at its "ancestral" home of St. Moritz in 1928 and 1948. It was then dropped until it reappeared as a men's and women's event at Salt Lake City in 2002.

Discover the reference document for Skeleton.

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Skeleton Equipment and History - Olympic Sport History

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Skeleton racing involves plummeting head-first down a steep and treacherous ice track on a tiny sled. It is considered the world's first sliding sport. Thrill-seeking tourists Sleighing is one of the oldest winter sports.

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Olympic Snowboarding - Winter Olympic Sport

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Access official Olympic Snowboard sport and athlete records, events, results, photos, videos, news and more.

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Snowboarding news, videos, live streams, schedule, results, medals, photos and more from the 2018 Winter Olympic Games in PyeongChang.

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics

IOC Discipline Code

SBD

Governing body
FIS

Events

10 (men: 5; women: 5)

1924

1928

1932

1936

1948

1952

1956

1960

1964

1968

1972

1976

1980

1984

1988

1992

1994

1998

Snowboarding is a sport at the Winter Olympic Games. It was first included in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan. Snowboarding was one of five new sports or disciplines added to the Winter Olympic program between 1992 and 2002, and was the only one not to have been a previous medal or demonstration event. In 1998, four events, two for men and two for women, were held in two specialities: the giant slalom, a downhill event similar to giant slalom skiing; and the half-pipe, in which competitors perform tricks while going from one side of a semi-circular ditch to the other. Canadian Ross Rebagliati won the men's giant slalom and became the first athlete to win a gold medal in snowboarding. Rebagliati was briefly stripped of his medal by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) after testing positive for marijuana. However, the IOC's decision was reverted following an appeal from the Canadian Olympic Association. For the 2002 Winter Olympics, giant slalom was expanded to add head-to-head racing and was renamed parallel giant slalom. In 2006, a third event, the snowboard cross, was held for the first time. In this event, competitors race against each other down a course with jumps, beams and other obstacles. On July 11, 2011, the International Olympic Committee's Executive Board approved the addition of Ski and Snowboard Slopestyle to the Winter Olympics roster of events, effective in 2014. The decision was announced via press conference from the IOC's meeting in Durban, South Africa. A fifth event, parallel slalom, was added only for 2014. Big air was added for 2018.

Six athletes have won at least two medals. Shaun White of the United States is the only triple gold medalist. Philipp Schoch of Switzerland, along with Chloe Kim and Seth Wescott of the United States, are the only double gold medalists. Karine Ruby of France and Americans Ross Powers and Danny Kass also won two medals. As of the 2014 Winter Olympics, 90 medals (30 of each color) have been awarded since 1998, and have been won by snowboarders from 21 National Olympic Committees.

^ Note 1. Giant slalom in 1998; parallel giant slalom since 2002.

Sources (after the 2022 Winter Olympics):
Accurate as of 2022 Winter Olympics.

Media related to Snowboarding at the Olympics at Wikimedia Commons

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Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics - Wikipedia

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From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia Snowboarding at the Winter Olympics IOC Discipline Code SBD Governing body FIS Events 10 (men: 5; women: 5) 1924 1928 1932 1936 1948 1952 1956 1960 1964 1968 1972 1976 1980 1984 1988 1992 1994 1998 Snowboarding is a sport at the Winter Olympic Games.

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The U.S. Alpine Ski Team enjoyed great success at the Olympic Winter Games Sochi 2014 with Mikaela Shiffrin and Ted Ligety grabbing Olympic gold, Andrew Weibrecht taking silver, and Bode Miller and Julia Mancuso claiming bronze medals. At 18, Shiffrin became the youngest athlete in history (male or female) to win an Olympic slalom gold medal, while at 36 years old, Miller became the oldest alpine medalist in Olympic history. Team USA is more than capable of matching their Sochi success in PyeongChang, and could even surprise with more spectacular performances to exceed expectations.

Heading into the Olympic Winter Games in PyeongChang, things look promising with gold medalist and honorary PyeongChang 2018 Ambassador Lindsey Vonn returning to action-hungry for gold. Additionally, Olympic gold medalists Ligety and Shiffrin plan to lead a strong squad. Two-time Olympic medalist Weibrecht, along with American downhill teammate Steven Nyman, will also be aiming for hardware in PyeongChang. The strong and consistent Laurenne Ross will also look to leave her mark on the Games while you young, promising talents - like Bryce Bennett, Jared Goldberg, Jackie Wiles and Breezy Johnson in speed events - will also look to make an impression.

PyeongChang promises to be a wild ride, with plenty of reasons to tune in and follow the action.

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Curling team is consisted of two or four athletes, and each team takes turn in throwing the curling stone. When curling stone is thrown, athletes follow the movement of the stone and 'sweep' the ice surface using 'broom' to control the direction and speed of the stone. Starting from the Nagano 1998 Olympic Winter Games, curling was adopted as an official sport, with two curling events - men's and women's curling. Mixed doubles will be introduced to the Olympic programme for the first time at the PyeongChang2018 Olympic Winter Games. The size of a curling sheet is 45.720m(L)x 5.00m(W), the distance between the two house centres is 34.747m and the diameter of each house is 3.658m. The equipment includes the curling stone, brush /broom.
※ Curling stone: maximum circumference of 91.44cm, a minimum height of 11.43cm, and a weight between 17.4kg and 19.96kg).
※ Brush or broom: It is used to sweep the ice to shape the path for the moving stone.

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Curling team is consisted of two or four athletes, and each team takes turn in throwing the curling stone. When curling stone is thrown, athletes follow the movement of the stone and 'sweep' the ice surface using 'broom' to control the direction and speed of the stone.

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Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hockey sticks to control, advance, and shoot a closed, vulcanized, rubber disc called a " puck" into the other team's goal. Each goal is worth one point. The team which scores the most goals is declared the winner. In a formal game, each team has six skaters on the ice at a time, barring any penalties, one of whom is the goaltender. Ice hockey is a full contact sport, and is considered to be one of the more physically demanding sports.

In North America as well as many European countries, the sport is known simply as hockey. However, in other countries, "hockey" usually refers to field hockey. In 1994 hockey was officially recognized as Canada's national winter sport.

The modern sport of ice hockey was developed in Canada, most notably in Montreal, where the first indoor game was played on March 3, 1875. Some characteristics of that game, such as the length of the ice rink and the use of a puck, have been retained to this day. Amateur ice hockey leagues began in the 1880s, and professional ice hockey originated around 1900. The Stanley Cup, emblematic of ice hockey club supremacy, was initially commissioned in 1892 as the "Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup" and was first awarded in 1893 to recognize the Canadian amateur champion and later became the championship trophy of the National Hockey League (NHL). In the early 1900s, the Canadian rules were adopted by the Ligue Internationale de Hockey Sur Glace, in Paris, France, the precursor of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The sport was played for the first time at the Olympics during the 1920 Summer Olympics.

The origin of ice hockey was bandy, a game that has its roots in the Middle Ages. Just as for practically all other sports, the game of bandy achieved its modern form during the 19th century in England, more exactly in the Fen district on the East coast. From the Fen district the game was spread to London and from London to the Continent during the second half of the 19th century. British soldiers stationed in eastern Canada brought the game to the North American continent in the 1850s and '60s. You could find similar games there, played by immigrants (chiefly Dutch) and by Indians. Thus there were a number of different games played on skates with a stick and ball and with varying rules in America before ice hockey was invented.

In England, field hockey has historically been called simply hockey and was what was referenced by first appearances in print. The first known mention spelled as hockey occurred in the 1772 book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education, by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey". The 1527 Statute of Galway banned a sport called "'hokie'-the hurling of a little ball with sticks or staves". A form of this word was thus being used in the 16th century, though much removed from its current usage.

The belief that hockey was mentioned in a 1363 proclamation by King Edward III of England is based on modern translations of the proclamation, which was originally in Latin and explicitly forbade the games Pilam Manualem, Pedivam, & Bacularem: & ad Canibucam & Gallorum Pugnam.

According to the Austin Hockey Association, the word puck derives from the Scottish Gaelic puc or the Irish poc ('to poke, punch or deliver a blow'). "...The blow given by a hurler to the ball with his camán or hurley is always called a puck."

Stick-and-ball games date back to the pre-Christian era in Iran. The game of polo is very similar to many group games such as ice hockey, and probably the main idea of the game of hockey was taken from polo. In Europe, these games included the Irish game of hurling, the closely related Scottish game of shinty and versions of field hockey (including bandy ball, played in England). IJscolf, a game resembling colf on an ice-covered surface, was popular in the Low Countries between the Middle Ages and the Dutch Golden Age. It was played with a wooden curved bat (called a colf or kolf), a wooden or leather ball and two poles (or nearby landmarks), with the objective to hit the chosen point using the fewest strokes. A similar game () had been played for a thousand years or more by the Scandinavian peoples, as documented in the Icelandic sagas. Polo has been referred to as "hockey on horseback". In England, field hockey developed in the late 17th century, and there is evidence that some games of field hockey took place on the ice. These games of "hockey on ice" were sometimes played with a bung (a plug of cork or oak used as a stopper on a barrel). William Pierre Le Cocq stated, in a 1799 letter written in Chesham, England:

I must now describe to you the game of Hockey; we have each a stick turning up at the end. We get a bung. There are two sides one of them knocks one way and the other side the other way. If any one of the sides makes the bung reach that end of the churchyard it is victorious.

British soldiers and immigrants to Canada and the United States brought their stick-and-ball games with them and played them on the ice and snow of winter.

To while away their boredom and to stay in shape they [European colonial soldiers in North America] would play on the frozen rivers and lakes. The British [English] played bandy, the Scots played shinty and golf, the Irish, hurling, while the Dutch soldiers probably pursued ken jaegen. Curiosity led some to try lacrosse. Each group learned the game from the others. The most daring ventured to play on skates. All these contributions nourished a game that was evolving. Hockey was invented by all these people, all these cultures, all these individuals. Hockey is the conclusion of all these beginnings.

In 1825, John Franklin wrote "The game of hockey played on the ice was the morning sport" on Great Bear Lake near the town of Délı̨nę during one of his Arctic expeditions. A mid-1830s watercolour portrays New Brunswick lieutenant-governor Archibald Campbell and his family with British soldiers on skates playing a stick-on-ice sport. Captain R.G.A. Levinge, a British Army officer in New Brunswick during Campbell's time, wrote about "hockey on ice" on Chippewa Creek (a tributary of the Niagara River) in 1839. In 1843 another British Army officer in Kingston, Ontario, wrote, "Began to skate this year, improved quickly and had great fun at hockey on the ice." An 1859 Boston Evening Gazette article referred to an early game of hockey on ice in Halifax that year. An 1835 painting by John O'Toole depicts skaters with sticks and bung on a frozen stream in the American state of West Virginia, at that time still part of Virginia.

In the same era, the Mi'kmaq, a First Nations people of the Canadian Maritimes, also had a stick-and-ball game. Canadian oral histories describe a traditional stick-and-ball game played by the Mi'kmaq, and Silas Tertius Rand (in his 1894 Legends of the Micmacs) describes a Mi'kmaq ball game known as tooadijik. Rand also describes a game played (probably after European contact) with hurleys, known as wolchamaadijik. Oochamkunutk was the name used by the Mi'kmaq to describe their own stick and ball game which they played on the ice while "Alchamadyk" was what the Mi'kmaq called the new the game of "Hurley on Ice" which was played by others around the province during the same period. Of particular note among influential Micmacs is Joe Cope ("Old Joe"), a Mi'kmaq elder known for his talent for carving what became one of the earliest types of ice hockey sticks used. Cope once stated, "Long before the pale faces strayed to this country, the Micmacs were playing two ball games, a field game and an ice game." Sticks made by the Mi'kmaq were used by the British for their games.

Early 19th-century paintings depict shinny, an early form of hockey with no standard rules which was played in Nova Scotia. Many of these early games absorbed the physical aggression of what the Onondaga called ( lacrosse). Shinny was played on the St. Lawrence River at Montreal and Quebec City, and in Kingston and Ottawa. The number of players was often large. To this day, shinny (derived from the Scottish game of shinty) is a popular Canadian term for an informal type of hockey, either ice or street hockey.

Thomas Chandler Haliburton, in The Attache: Second Series (published in 1844) imagined a dialogue, between two of the novel's characters, which mentions playing "hurly on the long pond on the ice". This has been interpreted by some historians from Windsor, Nova Scotia as reminiscent of the days when the author was a student at King's College School in that town in 1810 and earlier. Based on Haliburton's quote, claims were made that modern hockey was invented in Windsor, Nova Scotia, by King's College students and perhaps named after an individual ("Colonel Hockey's game"). Others claim that the origins of hockey come from games played in the area of Dartmouth and Halifax in Nova Scotia. However, several references have been found to hurling and shinty being played on the ice long before the earliest references from both Windsor and Dartmouth/Halifax, and the word "hockey" was used to designate a stick-and-ball game at least as far back as 1773, as it was mentioned in the book Juvenile Sports and Pastimes, to Which Are Prefixed, Memoirs of the Author: Including a New Mode of Infant Education by Richard Johnson (Pseud. Master Michel Angelo), whose chapter XI was titled "New Improvements on the Game of Hockey".

The Canadian city of Montreal, Quebec, became the centre of the development of contemporary ice hockey, and is recognized as the birthplace of organized ice hockey. On March 3, 1875, the first organized indoor game was played at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink between two nine-player teams, including James Creighton and several McGill University students. Instead of a ball or bung, the game featured a "flat circular piece of wood" (to keep it in the rink and to protect spectators). The goal posts were 8 feet (2.4 m) apart (today's goals are six feet (1.8 m) wide). Some observers of the game at McGill made quick note of its surprisingly aggressive and violent nature.

Shins and heads were battered, benches smashed and the lady spectators fled in confusion.

In 1876, games played in Montreal were "conducted under the 'Hockey Association' rules"; the Hockey Association was England's field hockey organization. In 1877, The Gazette (Montreal) published a list of seven rules, six of which were largely based on six of the Hockey Association's twelve rules, with only minor differences (even the word "ball" was kept); the one added rule explained how disputes should be settled. The McGill University Hockey Club, the first ice hockey club, was founded in 1877 (followed by the Quebec Hockey Club in 1878 and the Montreal Victorias in 1881). In 1880, the number of players per side was reduced from nine to seven.

The number of teams grew, enough to hold the first "world championship" of ice hockey at Montreal's annual Winter Carnival in 1883. The McGill team won the tournament and was awarded the Carnival Cup. The game was divided into thirty-minute halves. The positions were now named: left and right wing, centre, rover, point and cover-point, and goaltender. In 1886, the teams competing at the Winter Carnival organized the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC), and played a season comprising "challenges" to the existing champion.

In Europe, it was previously believed that in 1885 the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club was formed to play the first Ice Hockey Varsity Match against traditional rival Cambridge in St. Moritz, Switzerland; however, this is now considered to have been a game of bandy. A similar claim which turned out to be accurate is that the oldest rivalry in ice hockey history is between Queen's University at Kingston and Royal Military College of Kingston, Ontario, with the first known match taking place in 1886.

In 1888, the Governor General of Canada, The Lord Stanley of Preston, first attended the Montreal Winter Carnival tournament and was impressed with the game. His sons and his daughter, Isobel Stanley, were hockey enthusiasts. In 1892, realizing that there was no recognition for the best team in Canada (although a number of leagues had championship trophies), he purchased a silver bowl for use as a trophy. The Dominion Hockey Challenge Cup (which later became known as the Stanley Cup) was first awarded in 1893 to the Montreal Hockey Club, champions of the AHAC; it continues to be awarded annually to the National Hockey League's championship team. Stanley's son Arthur helped organize the Ontario Hockey Association, and Stanley's daughter Isobel was one of the first women to play ice hockey.

By 1893, there were almost a hundred teams in Montreal alone; in addition, there were leagues throughout Canada. Winnipeg hockey players used cricket pads to better protect the goaltender's legs; they also introduced the "scoop" shot, or what is now known as the wrist shot. William Fairbrother, from Ontario, Canada, is credited with inventing the ice hockey net in the 1890s. Goal nets became a standard feature of the Canadian Amateur Hockey League in 1900. Left and right defence began to replace the point and cover-point positions in the OHA in 1906.

American financier Malcolm Greene Chace is credited with being the father of hockey in the United States. In 1892, Chace put together a team of men from Yale, Brown, and Harvard, and toured across Canada as captain of this team. The first collegiate hockey match in the United States was played between Yale and Johns Hopkins in Baltimore in 1893. In 1896, the first ice hockey league in the US was formed. The US Amateur Hockey League was founded in New York City, shortly after the opening of the artificial-ice St. Nicholas Rink.

By 1898 the following leagues had already formed: the Amateur Hockey League of New York, the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada, and the Ontario Hockey Association. The 1898 Spalding Athletic Library book includes rules and results for each league.

Stanley's five sons were instrumental in bringing ice hockey to Europe, defeating a court team (which included the future Edward VII and George V) at Buckingham Palace in 1895. By 1903, a five-team league had been founded. The Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace was founded in 1908 to govern international competition, and the first European championship was won by Great Britain in 1910. The sport grew further in Europe in the 1920s, after ice hockey became an Olympic sport. Many bandy players switched to hockey to be able to compete in the Olympics. In the mid-20th century, the Ligue became the International Ice Hockey Federation.

As the popularity of ice hockey as a spectator sport grew, earlier rinks were replaced by larger rinks. Most of the early indoor ice rinks have been demolished; Montreal's Victoria Rink, built in 1862, was demolished in 1925. Many older rinks succumbed to fire, such as Denman Arena, Dey's Arena, Quebec Skating Rink and Montreal Arena, a hazard of the buildings' wood construction. The Stannus Street Rink in Windsor, Nova Scotia (built in 1897) may be the oldest still in existence; however, it is no longer used for hockey. The Aberdeen Pavilion (built in 1898) in Ottawa was used for hockey in 1904 and is the oldest existing facility that has hosted Stanley Cup games.

The oldest indoor ice hockey arena still in use today for hockey is Boston's Matthews Arena, which was built in 1910. It has been modified extensively several times in its history and is used today by Northeastern University for hockey and other sports. It was the original home rink of the Boston Bruins professional team, itself the oldest United States-based team in the NHL, starting play in the league in what was then called Boston Arena on December 1, 1924. Madison Square Garden in New York City, built in 1968, is the oldest continuously-operating arena in the NHL.

While scattered incidents of players taking pay to play hockey occurred as early as the 1890s, those found to have done so were banned from playing in the amateur leagues which dominated the sport. By 1902, the Western Pennsylvania Hockey League (WPHL) was the first to employ professionals. The league joined with teams in Michigan and Ontario to form the first fully professional league-the International Professional Hockey League (IPHL)-in 1904. The WPHL and IPHL hired players from Canada; in response, Canadian leagues began to pay players (who played with amateurs). The IPHL, cut off from its largest source of players, disbanded in 1907. By then, several professional hockey leagues were operating in Canada (with leagues in Manitoba, Ontario and Quebec).

In 1910, the National Hockey Association (NHA) was formed in Montreal. The NHA would further refine the rules: dropping the rover position, dividing the game into three 20-minute periods and introducing minor and major penalties. After re-organizing as the National Hockey League in 1917, the league expanded into the United States, starting with the Boston Bruins in 1924.

While the general characteristics of the game remain constant, the exact rules depend on the particular code of play being used. The two most important codes are those of the IIHF and the NHL. Both of these codes, and others, originated from Canadian rules of ice hockey of the early 20th century.

Ice hockey is played on a hockey rink. During normal play, there are six players on ice skates on the ice per side, one of them being the goaltender. The objective of the game is to score by shooting a hard vulcanized rubber disc, the , into the opponent's goal net at the opposite end of the rink. The players use their sticks to pass or shoot the puck.

With certain restrictions, players may redirect the puck with any part of their body. Players may not hold the puck in their hand and are prohibited from using their hands to pass the puck to their teammates unless they are in the defensive zone. Players however can knock a puck out of the air with their hand to themself. Players are prohibited from kicking the puck into the opponent's goal, though unintentional redirections off the skate are permitted. Players may not intentionally bat the puck into the net with their hands.

Hockey is an off-side game, meaning that forward passes are allowed, unlike in rugby. Before the 1930s, hockey was an on-side game, meaning that only backward passes were allowed. Those rules emphasized individual stick-handling to drive the puck forward. With the arrival of offside rules, the forward pass transformed hockey into a true team sport, where individual performance diminished in importance relative to team play, which could now be coordinated over the entire surface of the ice as opposed to merely rearward players.

The six players on each team are typically divided into three forwards, two defencemen, and a goaltender. The term skaters typically applies to all players except goaltenders. The positions consist of a and two : a left wing and a right wing. Forwards often play together as units or lines, with the same three forwards always playing together. The defencemen usually stay together as a pair generally divided between left and right. Left and right side wingers or defencemen are generally positioned on the side on which they carry their stick. A substitution of an entire unit at once is called a line change. Teams typically employ alternate sets of forward lines and defensive pairings when short-handed or on a . The goaltender stands in a, usually blue, semi-circle called the crease in the defensive zone keeping pucks out of the goal. Substitutions are permitted at any time during the game, although during a stoppage of play the home team is permitted the final change. When players are substituted during play, it is called changing on the fly. An NHL rule added in the 2005-06 season prevents a team from changing their line after they the puck.

The boards surrounding the ice help keep the puck in play and they can also be used as tools to play the puck. Players are permitted to bodycheck opponents into the boards to stop progress. The referees, linesmen and the outsides of the goal are "in play" and do not stop the game when the puck or players either bounce into or collide with them. Play can be stopped if the goal is knocked out of position. Play often proceeds for minutes without interruption. After a stoppage, play is restarted with a faceoff. Two players face each other and an official drops the puck to the ice, where the two players attempt to gain control of the puck. Markings (circles) on the ice indicate the locations for the faceoff and guide the positioning of players.

Three major rules of play in ice hockey limit the movement of the puck: offside, icing, and the puck going out of play.

A player is offside if he enters his opponent's zone before the puck itself.

Under many situations, a player may not "ice the puck", which means shooting the puck all the way across both the centre line and the opponent's goal line.

The puck goes out of play whenever it goes past the perimeter of the ice rink (onto the player benches, over the glass, or onto the protective netting above the glass) and a stoppage of play is called by the officials using whistles. It does not matter if the puck comes back onto the ice surface from outside of the rink, because the puck is considered dead once it leaves the perimeter of the rink. The referee may also blow the whistle for a stoppage in play if the puck is jammed along the boards when two or more players are battling for the puck for a long time, or if the puck is stuck on the back of any of the two nets for a period of time.

Under IIHF rules, each team may carry a maximum of 20 players and two goaltenders on their roster. NHL rules restrict the total number of players per game to 18, plus two goaltenders. In the NHL, the players are usually divided into four lines of three forwards, and into three pairs of defencemen. On occasion, teams may elect to substitute an extra defenceman for a forward. The seventh defenceman may play as a substitute defenceman, spend the game on the bench, or if a team chooses to play four lines then this seventh defenceman may see ice-time on the fourth line as a forward.

A professional game consists of three periods of twenty minutes, the clock running only when the puck is in play. The teams change ends after each period of play, including overtime. Recreational leagues and children's leagues often play shorter games, generally with three shorter periods of play.

If a tie occurs in tournament play, as well as in the NHL playoffs, North Americans favour sudden death overtime, in which the teams continue to play twenty-minute periods until a goal is scored. Up until the 1999-2000 season, regular-season NHL games were settled with a single five-minute sudden death period with five players (plus a goalie) per side, with both teams awarded one point in the standings in the event of a tie. With a goal, the winning team would be awarded two points and the losing team none (just as if they had lost in regulation). The total elapsed time from when the puck first drops, is about 2 hours and 20 minutes for a 60-minute game.

From the 1999-2000 until the 2003-04 seasons, the National Hockey League decided ties by playing a single five-minute sudden-death overtime period with each team having four skaters per side (plus the goalie). In the event of a tie, each team would still receive one point in the standings but in the event of a victory the winning team would be awarded two points in the standings and the losing team one point. The idea was to discourage teams from playing for a tie, since previously some teams might have preferred a tie and 1 point to risking a loss and zero points. The exception to this rule is if a team opts to pull their goalie in exchange for an extra skater during overtime and is subsequently scored upon (an empty net goal), in which case the losing team receives no points for the overtime loss. Since the 2015-16 season, the single five-minute sudden-death overtime session involves three skaters on each side. Since three skaters must always be on the ice in an NHL game, the consequences of penalties are slightly different from those during regulation play; any penalty during overtime that would result in a team losing a skater during regulation instead causes the other side to add a skater. Once the penalized team's penalty ends, the penalized skater exits the penalty box and the teams continue at 4-on-4 until the next stoppage of play, at which point the teams return to three skaters per side.

International play and several North American professional leagues, including the NHL (in the regular season), now use an overtime period identical to that from 1999-2000 to 2003-04 followed by a penalty shootout. If the score remains tied after an extra overtime period, the subsequent shootout consists of three players from each team taking penalty shots. After these six total shots, the team with the most goals is awarded the victory. If the score is still tied, the shootout then proceeds to sudden death. Regardless of the number of goals scored by either team during the shootout, the final score recorded will award the winning team one more goal than the score at the end of regulation time. In the NHL if a game is decided in overtime or by a shootout the winning team is awarded two points in the standings and the losing team is awarded one point. Ties no longer occur in the NHL.

Overtime in the NHL playoffs differs from the regular season. In the playoffs there are no shootouts. If a game is tied after regulation, then a 20-minute period of 5-on-5 sudden-death overtime will be added. If the game is still tied after the overtime, another period is added until a team scores, which wins the match. Since 2019, the IIHF World Championships and the gold medal game in the Olympics use the same format, but in a 3-on-3 format.

In ice hockey, infractions of the rules lead to a play stoppage whereby the play is restarted at a faceoff. Some infractions result in a penalty on a player or team. In the simplest case, the offending player is sent to the penalty box and their team must play with one less player on the ice for a designated time. Minor penalties last for two minutes, major penalties last for five minutes, and a double minor penalty is two consecutive penalties of two minutes duration. A single minor penalty may be extended by two minutes for causing visible injury to the victimized player. This is usually when blood is drawn during high sticking. Players may be also assessed personal extended penalties or game expulsions for misconduct in addition to the penalty or penalties their team must serve. The team that has been given a penalty is said to be playing short-handed while the opposing team is on a .

A two-minute minor penalty is often charged for lesser infractions such as tripping, elbowing, roughing, high-sticking, delay of the game, too many players on the ice, boarding, illegal equipment, charging (leaping into an opponent or body-checking him after taking more than two strides), holding, holding the stick (grabbing an opponent's stick), interference, hooking, slashing, kneeing, unsportsmanlike conduct (arguing a penalty call with referee, extremely vulgar or inappropriate verbal comments), "butt-ending" (striking an opponent with the knob of the stick), "spearing" (jabbing an opponent with the blade of the stick), or cross-checking. As of the 2005-2006 season, a minor penalty is also assessed for diving, where a player embellishes or simulates an offence. More egregious fouls may be penalized by a four-minute double-minor penalty, particularly those that injure the victimized player. These penalties end either when the time runs out or when the other team scores during the power play. In the case of a goal scored during the first two minutes of a double-minor, the penalty clock is set down to two minutes upon a score, effectively expiring the first minor penalty.

Five-minute major penalties are called for especially violent instances of most minor infractions that result in intentional injury to an opponent, or when a minor penalty results in visible injury (such as bleeding), as well as for fighting. Major penalties are always served in full; they do not terminate on a goal scored by the other team. Major penalties assessed for fighting are typically offsetting, meaning neither team is short-handed and the players exit the penalty box upon a stoppage of play following the expiration of their respective penalties. The foul of boarding (defined as "check[ing] an opponent in such a manner that causes the opponent to be thrown violently in the boards") is penalized either by a minor or major penalty at the discretion of the referee, based on the violent state of the hit. A minor or major penalty for boarding is often assessed when a player checks an opponent from behind and into the boards.

Some varieties of penalty do not require the offending team to play a man short. Concurrent five-minute major penalties in the NHL usually result from fighting. In the case of two players being assessed five-minute fighting majors, both the players serve five minutes without their team incurring a loss of player (both teams still have a full complement of players on the ice). This differs with two players from opposing sides getting minor penalties, at the same time or at any intersecting moment, resulting from more common infractions. In this case, both teams will have only four skating players (not counting the goaltender) until one or both penalties expire (if one penalty expires before the other, the opposing team gets a power play for the remainder of the time); this applies regardless of current pending penalties. However, in the NHL, a team always has at least three skaters on the ice. Thus, ten-minute misconduct penalties are served in full by the penalized player, but his team may immediately substitute another player on the ice unless a minor or major penalty is assessed in conjunction with the misconduct (a two-and-ten or five-and-ten). In this case, the team designates another player to serve the minor or major; both players go to the penalty box, but only the designee may not be replaced, and he is released upon the expiration of the two or five minutes, at which point the ten-minute misconduct begins. In addition, game misconducts are assessed for deliberate intent to inflict severe injury on an opponent (at the officials' discretion), or for a major penalty for a stick infraction or repeated major penalties. The offending player is ejected from the game and must immediately leave the playing surface (he does not sit in the penalty box); meanwhile, if an additional minor or major penalty is assessed, a designated player must serve out of that segment of the penalty in the box (similar to the above-mentioned "two-and-ten"). In some rare cases, a player may receive up to nineteen minutes in penalties for one string of plays. This could involve receiving a four-minute double-minor penalty, getting in a fight with an opposing player who retaliates, and then receiving a game misconduct after the fight. In this case, the player is ejected and two teammates must serve the double-minor and major penalties.

A penalty shot is awarded to a player when the illegal actions of another player stop a clear scoring opportunity, most commonly when the player is on a breakaway. A penalty shot allows the obstructed player to pick up the puck on the centre red-line and attempt to score on the goalie with no other players on the ice, to compensate for the earlier missed scoring opportunity. A penalty shot is also awarded for a defender other than the goaltender covering the puck in the goal crease, a goaltender intentionally displacing his own goal posts during a breakaway to avoid a goal, a defender intentionally displacing his own goal posts when there is less than two minutes to play in regulation time or at any point during overtime, or a player or coach intentionally throwing a stick or other object at the puck or the puck carrier and the throwing action disrupts a shot or pass play.

Officials also stop play for puck movement violations, such as using one's hands to pass the puck in the offensive end, but no players are penalized for these offences. The sole exceptions are deliberately falling on or gathering the puck to the body, carrying the puck in the hand, and shooting the puck out of play in one's defensive zone (all penalized two minutes for delay of game).

In the NHL, a unique penalty applies to the goalies. The goalies now are forbidden to play the puck in the "corners" of the rink near their own net. This will result in a two-minute penalty against the goalie's team. Only in the area in front of the goal line and immediately behind the net (marked by two red lines on either side of the net) can the goalie play the puck.

An additional rule that has never been a penalty, but was an infraction in the NHL before recent rules changes, is the two-line offside pass. Prior to the 2005-06 NHL season, play was stopped when a pass from inside a team's defending zone crossed the centre line, with a face-off held in the defending zone of the offending team. Now, the centre line is no longer used in the NHL to determine a two-line pass infraction, a change that the IIHF had adopted in 1998. Players are now able to pass to teammates who are more than the blue and centre ice red line away.

The NHL has taken steps to speed up the game of hockey and create a game of finesse, by reducing the number of illegal hits, fights, and "clutching and grabbing" that occurred in the past. Rules are now more strictly enforced, resulting in more penalties, which provides more protection to the players and facilitates more goals being scored. The governing body for United States' amateur hockey has implemented many new rules to reduce the number of stick-on-body occurrences, as well as other detrimental and illegal facets of the game ("zero tolerance").

In men's hockey, but not in women's, a player may use his hip or shoulder to hit another player if the player has the puck or is the last to have touched it. This use of the hip and shoulder is called body checking. Not all physical contact is legal-in particular, hits from behind, hits to the head and most types of forceful stick-on-body contact are illegal.

A delayed penalty call occurs when an offence is committed by the team that does not have possession of the puck. In this circumstance the team with possession of the puck is allowed to complete the play; that is, play continues until a goal is scored, a player on the opposing team gains control of the puck, or the team in possession commits an infraction or penalty of their own. Because the team on which the penalty was called cannot control the puck without stopping play, it is impossible for them to score a goal. In these cases, the team in possession of the puck can pull the goalie for an extra attacker without fear of being scored on. However, it is possible for the controlling team to mishandle the puck into their own net. If a delayed penalty is signalled and the team in possession scores, the penalty is still assessed to the offending player, but not served. In 2012, this rule was changed by the United States' National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) for college level hockey. In college games, the penalty is still enforced even if the team in possession scores.

A typical game of hockey is governed by two to four on the ice, charged with enforcing the rules of the game. There are typically two linesmen who are mainly responsible for calling "offside" and " icing" violations, breaking up fights, and conducting faceoffs, and one or two referees, who call goals and all other penalties. Linesmen can, however, report to the referee(s) that a penalty should be assessed against an offending player in some situations. The restrictions on this practice vary depending on the governing rules. On-ice officials are assisted by off-ice officials who act as goal judges, time keepers, and official scorers.

The most widespread system is the "three-man system", which uses one referee and two linesmen. A less commonly used system is the two referee and one linesman system. This system is close to the regular three-man system except for a few procedure changes. Beginning with the National Hockey League, a number of leagues have implemented the "four-official system", where an additional referee is added to aid in the calling of penalties normally difficult to assess by one referee. The system is used in every NHL game since 2001, at IIHF World Championships, the Olympics and in many professional and high-level amateur leagues in North America and Europe.

Officials are selected by the league they work for. Amateur hockey leagues use guidelines established by national organizing bodies as a basis for choosing their officiating staffs. In North America, the national organizing bodies Hockey Canada and USA Hockey approve officials according to their experience level as well as their ability to pass rules knowledge and skating ability tests. Hockey Canada has officiating levels I through VI. USA Hockey has officiating levels 1 through 4.

Since men's ice hockey is a full-contact sport, body checks are allowed so injuries are a common occurrence. Protective equipment is mandatory and is enforced in all competitive situations. This includes a helmet with either a visor or a full face mask, shoulder pads, elbow pads, mouth guard, protective gloves, heavily padded shorts (also known as hockey pants) or a girdle, athletic cup (also known as a jock, for males; and jill, for females), shin pads, skates, and (optionally) a neck protector.

Goaltenders use different equipment. With hockey pucks approaching them at speeds of up to 100 mph (160 km/h) they must wear equipment with more protection. Goaltenders wear specialized goalie skates (these skates are built more for movement side to side rather than forwards and backwards), a jock or jill, large leg pads (there are size restrictions in certain leagues), blocking glove, catching glove, a chest protector, a goalie mask, and a large jersey. Goaltenders' equipment has continually become larger and larger, leading to fewer goals in each game and many official rule changes.

Ice hockey skates are optimized for physical acceleration, speed and manoeuvrability. This includes rapid starts, stops, turns, and changes in skating direction. In addition, they must be rigid and tough to protect the skater's feet from contact with other skaters, sticks, pucks, the boards, and the ice itself. Rigidity also improves the overall manoeuvrability of the skate. Blade length, thickness (width), and curvature (rocker/radius (front to back) and radius of hollow (across the blade width) are quite different from speed or figure skates. Hockey players usually adjust these parameters based on their skill level, position, and body type. The blade width of most skates are about inch (3.2 mm) thick.

The hockey stick consists of a long, relatively wide, and slightly curved flat blade, attached to a shaft. The curve itself has a big impact on its performance. A deep curve allows for lifting the puck easier while a shallow curve allows for easier backhand shots. The flex of the stick also impacts the performance. Typically, a less flexible stick is meant for a stronger player since the player is looking for the right balanced flex that allows the stick to flex easily while still having a strong "whip-back" which sends the puck flying at high speeds. It is quite distinct from sticks in other sports games and most suited to hitting and controlling the flat puck. Its unique shape contributed to the early development of the game.

Ice hockey is a full-contact sport and carries a high risk of injury. Players are moving at speeds around approximately 20-30 mph (30-50 km/h) and much of the game revolves around the physical contact between the players. Skate blades, hockey sticks, shoulder contact, hip contact, and hockey pucks can all potentially cause injuries. Lace bite, an irritation felt on the front of the foot or ankle, is a common ice hockey injury.

Compared to athletes who play other sports, ice hockey players are at higher risk of overuse injuries and injuries caused by early sports specialization by teenagers.

According to the Hughston Health Alert, "Lacerations to the head, scalp, and face are the most frequent types of injury [in hockey]."

One of the leading causes of head injury is body checking from behind. Due to the danger of delivering a check from behind, many leagues - including the NHL - have made this a major and game misconduct penalty. Another type of check that accounts for many of the player-to-player contact concussions is a check to the head resulting in a misconduct penalty (called "head contact"). In recent years, the NHL has implemented new rules which penalize and suspend players for illegal checks to the heads, as well as checks to unsuspecting players. Studies show that ice hockey causes 44.3% of all sports-related traumatic brain injuries among Canadian children.

An important defensive tactic is checking-attempting to take the puck from an opponent or to remove the opponent from play. Stick checking, sweep checking, and poke checking are legal uses of the stick to obtain possession of the puck. The neutral zone trap is designed to isolate the puck carrier in the neutral zone preventing him from entering the offensive zone. Body checking is using one's shoulder or hip to strike an opponent who has the puck or who is the last to have touched it (the last person to have touched the puck is still legally "in possession" of it, although a penalty is generally called if he is checked more than two seconds after his last touch). Body checking is also a penalty in certain leagues in order to reduce the chance of injury to players. Often the term checking is used to refer to body checking, with its true definition generally only propagated among fans of the game.

Offensive tactics include improving a team's position on the ice by advancing the puck out of one's zone towards the opponent's zone, progressively by gaining lines, first your own blue line, then the red line and finally the opponent's blue line. NHL rules instated for the 2006 season redefined the offside rule to make the two-line pass legal; a player may pass the puck from behind his own blue line, past both that blue line and the centre red line, to a player on the near side of the opponents' blue line. Offensive tactics are designed ultimately to score a goal by taking a shot. When a player purposely directs the puck towards the opponent's goal, he or she is said to "shoot" the puck.

A deflection is a shot that redirects a shot or a pass towards the goal from another player, by allowing the puck to strike the stick and carom towards the goal. A is a shot struck directly off a pass, without receiving the pass and shooting in two separate actions. Headmanning the puck, also known as breaking out, is the tactic of rapidly passing to the player farthest down the ice. , also known as cherry-picking, is when a player, usually a forward, skates behind an attacking team, instead of playing defence, in an attempt to create an easy scoring chance.

A team that is losing by one or two goals in the last few minutes of play will often elect to pull the goalie; that is, remove the goaltender and replace him or her with an extra attacker on the ice in the hope of gaining enough advantage to score a goal. However, it is an act of desperation, as it sometimes leads to the opposing team extending their lead by scoring a goal in the empty net.

One of the most important strategies for a team is their . Forechecking is the act of attacking the opposition in their defensive zone. Forechecking is an important part of the dump and chase strategy (i.e. shooting the puck into the offensive zone and then chasing after it). Each team will use their own unique system but the main ones are: 2-1-2, 1-2-2, and 1-4. The 2-1-2 is the most basic forecheck system where two forwards will go in deep and pressure the opposition's defencemen, the third forward stays high and the two defencemen stay at the blueline. The 1-2-2 is a bit more conservative system where one forward pressures the puck carrier and the other two forwards cover the oppositions' wingers, with the two defencemen staying at the blueline. The 1-4 is the most defensive forecheck system, referred to as the neutral zone trap, where one forward will apply pressure to the puck carrier around the oppositions' blueline and the other 4 players stand basically in a line by their blueline in hopes the opposition will skate into one of them. Another strategy is the left wing lock, which has two forwards pressure the puck and the left wing and the two defencemen stay at the blueline.

There are many other little tactics used in the game of hockey. moves the puck along the boards in the offensive zone to create a scoring chance by making defenders tired or moving them out of position. Pinching is when a defenceman pressures the opposition's winger in the offensive zone when they are breaking out, attempting to stop their attack and keep the puck in the offensive zone. A saucer pass is a pass used when an opposition's stick or body is in the passing lane. It is the act of raising the puck over the obstruction and having it land on a teammate's stick.

Although fighting is officially prohibited in the rules, it is not an uncommon occurrence at the professional level, and its prevalence has been both a target of criticism and a considerable draw for the sport. At the professional level in North America fights are unofficially condoned. Enforcers and other players fight to demoralize the opposing players while exciting their own, as well as settling personal scores. A fight will also break out if one of the team's skilled players gets hit hard or someone receives what the team perceives as a dirty hit. The amateur game penalizes fisticuffs more harshly, as a player who receives a fighting major is also assessed at least a 10-minute misconduct penalty (NCAA and some Junior leagues) or a game misconduct penalty and suspension (high school and younger, as well as some casual adult leagues).

Women's ice hockey

Body checking has been prohibited in women's ice hockey since the mid-1980s in Canada, and spreading from there internationally. Canada's Rhonda Leeman Taylor was responsible for banning body contact from all national women's ice hockey tournaments in Canada in 1983. Body checking in some of the women's hockey leagues in Canada were completely removed in 1986 resulting in a substantial increase in female participation in ice hockey in Canada.

In women's IIHF ice hockey today, body checking is considered an "illegal hit" and is punishable by a minor penalty, major penalty and game misconduct, or match penalty. In current IIHF women's competition, body checking is either a minor or major penalty, decided at the referee's discretion.

The idea of reintroducing bodychecking to the female game after its removal in the 1990s remains controversial. Some of those opposed to the idea of its reintroduction maintain it would lead to a loss of female participants, as once stated by Arto Sieppi, Finland's director of women's hockey. Sieppi made the statement in response to claims made by the then head coach of Sweden's women's national ice hockey team, Peter Elander, who had claimed its absence was due to patriarchal sexism.

Peter is a good friend of mine, but I totally disagree...First of all, it's a women's sport, and if bodychecking would be allowed, the number of young girls entering the game would decrease rapidly.

-  Mathew Sekeres, "Too dainty to hit?", The Globe and Mail, (September 5, 2009)

The Svenska damhockeyligan (SDHL), known as the Swedish Women's Hockey League in English, announced in 2022 that it would include body checking during its 2022-23 season, but would maintain a prohibition on the, "..."north-south" open-ice hit". The new program will also be extended to the Damettan, Sweden's second-tier women's league.

Players in women's competition are required to wear protective full- face masks. At all levels, players must wear a pelvic protector, essentially the female equivalent of a jockstrap, known colloquially as a "jill" or "jillstrap". Other protective equipment for girls and women in ice hockey is sometimes specifically designed for the female body, such as shoulder pads designed to protect a women's breast area without reducing mobility.

Women began playing the game of ice hockey in the late 19th century. Several games were recorded in the 1890s in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The women of Lord Stanley's family were known to participate in the game of ice hockey on the outdoor ice rink at Rideau Hall, the residence of Canada's Governor-General.

The earliest available records of women's ice hockey were in the late 19th-century in Canada. Much like the men's game, women had previously been playing a conglomeration of stick-and-ball ice games. As with men's hockey, the women's game developed at first without an organizing body. A tournament in 1902 between Montreal and Trois-Rivieres was billed as the first women's ice hockey championship tournament. Several tournaments, such as at the Banff Winter Carnival, were held in the early 20th century with numerous women's teams such as the Seattle Vamps and Vancouver Amazons. Organizations started to develop in the 1920s, such as the Ladies Ontario Hockey Association in Canada, and later, the Dominion Women's Amateur Hockey Association.

Starting in Canada in 1961, the women's game spread to more universities after the Fitness and Amateur Sport Act came into force in whereby the Canadian Government of Canada made an official commitment to "encourage, promote and develop fitness and amateur sport in Canada."

Between 1995 and 2005 the number of participants increased by 400 percent. In 2011, Canada had 85,827 women players, United States had 65,609, Finland 4,760, Sweden 3,075 and Switzerland 1,172.

Prior to the professionalization of women's ice hockey in the 21st century, almost all professional women hockey players who played against men were goaltenders. No woman has ever played a full season in top tier men's professional ice hockey. The United States Hockey League (USHL) welcomed the first female professional ice hockey player in 1969-70, when the Marquette Iron Rangers signed 18-year-old Karen Koch, a goaltender. Only one woman has ever played in the National Hockey League (NHL), goaltender Manon Rhéaume. Rhéaume played in NHL pre-season games as a goaltender for the Tampa Bay Lightning against the St. Louis Blues and the Boston Bruins. In 2003, Hayley Wickenheiser played with the Kirkkonummi Salamat in the Finnish men's Suomi-sarja league.

Women's World Championship

The 1989 IIHF European Women Championships in West Germany was the first European Championship held in women's ice hockey and preceded the eventual International Ice Hockey Federation-sanctioned Women's World Championship for ice hockey. The first world ice hockey championship for women was the 1990 IIHF World Women's Championship.

The following is a list of professional ice hockey leagues by attendance:

League

Country

Notes

Average Attendance[89]
for 2018-19

Kontinental Hockey League (KHL)

Russia (19 teams)
Belarus (1 team)
China (1 team)
Kazakhstan (1 team)

Successor to Russian Superleague and Soviet Championship League

6,397

Czech Extraliga
Formed from the split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League

5,401

Liiga
Originally SM-sarja from 1928 to 1975. Known as SM-Liiga from 1975 to 2013

4,232

Champions Hockey League
Europe-wide championship tournament league. Successor to European Trophy and Champions Hockey League

3,397[90]

Austrian Hockey League
Austria (8 teams)
Hungary (1 team)
Czech Republic (1 team)
Italy (1 team)
Croatia (1 team)

2,970

Elite Ice Hockey League
Teams in all of the home nations: England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland

2,850

Slovak Extraliga
Formed from the split of the Czechoslovak First Ice Hockey League

1,663

Supreme Hockey League (VHL)
Russia (24 teams)
Kazakhstan (2 teams)
China (2 teams)

Second division of Russia and partial development league for the KHL

1,766

Premier Hockey Federation
Formed in 2015

954[91]

Asia League
Japan (4 teams)
South Korea (3 teams)
Russia (1 team)
China (1 team)

976

Mestis
Finland (13 teams)

Latvia (1 team)

Successor to I-Divisioona, Second division of Finland

762

Federal Prospects Hockey League
1,546[92]

Ligue Nord-Américaine de Hockey
1,131[93]

BeNe League
Formed in 2015 with teams from Dutch Eredivisie and Belgian Hockey League

784

Erste Liga
Hungary (6 teams)
Romania (2 teams)
Austria (1 team)

601

Alps Hockey League
Austria (7 teams)
Italy (8 teams)
Slovenia (2 teams)

Formed in 2016 with the merger of Italy's Serie A and the joint Austrian-Slovenian Inter-National League

734

The NHL is the best attended and most popular ice hockey league in the world, and is among the major professional sports leagues in the United States and Canada. The league's history began after Canada's National Hockey Association decided to disband in 1917; the result was the creation of the National Hockey League with four teams. The league expanded to the United States beginning in 1924 and had as many as 10 teams before contracting to six teams by 1942-43. In 1967, the NHL doubled in size to 12 teams, undertaking one of the greatest expansions in professional sports history. A few years later, in 1972, a new 12-team league, the World Hockey Association (WHA) was formed and due to its ensuing rivalry with the NHL, it caused an escalation in players' salaries. In 1979, the 17-team NHL merged with the WHA creating a 21-team league. By 2017, the NHL had expanded to 31 teams, and after a realignment in 2013, these teams were divided into two conferences and four divisions. The league expanded to 32 teams in 2021.

U Sports ice hockey is the highest level of play at the Canadian university level under the auspices of U Sports, Canada's governing body for university sports. As these players compete at the university level, they are obligated to follow the rule of standard eligibility of five years. In the United States especially, college hockey is popular and the best university teams compete in the annual NCAA Men's Ice Hockey Championship. The American Collegiate Hockey Association is composed of college teams at the club level.

In the United States, the United States Hockey League (USHL) is the highest junior league. Players in this league are also amateur with players required to be under 21-years old, but do not get a stipend, which allows players to retain their eligibility for participation in NCAA ice hockey.

The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the largest and most popular ice hockey league in Eurasia. The league is the direct successor to the Russian Super League, which in turn was the successor to the Soviet League, the history of which dates back to the Soviet adoption of ice hockey in the 1940s. The KHL was launched in 2008 with clubs predominantly from Russia, but featuring teams from other post-Soviet states. The league expanded beyond the former Soviet countries beginning in the 2011-12 season, with clubs in Croatia and Slovakia. The KHL currently comprises member clubs based in Belarus (1), China (1), Kazakhstan (1) and Russia (19) for a total of 22.

The second division of hockey in Eurasia is the Supreme Hockey League (VHL). This league features 24 teams from Russia and 2 from Kazakhstan. This league is currently being converted to a farm league for the KHL, similarly to the AHL's function in relation to the NHL. The third division is the Russian Hockey League, which features only teams from Russia. The Asia League, an international ice hockey league featuring clubs from China, Japan, South Korea, and the Russian Far East, is the successor to the Japan Ice Hockey League.

The highest junior league in Eurasia is the Junior Hockey League (MHL). It features 32 teams from post-Soviet states, predominantly Russia. The second tier to this league is the Junior Hockey League Championships (MHL-B).

Several countries in Europe have their own top professional senior leagues. Many future KHL and NHL players start or end their professional careers in these leagues. The National League A in Switzerland, Swedish Hockey League in Sweden, Liiga in Finland, and Czech Extraliga in the Czech Republic are all very popular in their respective countries.

There are also several annual tournaments for clubs, held outside of league play. Pre-season tournaments include the European Trophy, Tampere Cup and the Pajulahti Cup. One of the oldest international ice hockey competition for clubs is the Spengler Cup, held every year in Davos, Switzerland, between Christmas and New Year's Day. It was first awarded in 1923 to the Oxford University Ice Hockey Club. The Memorial Cup, a competition for junior-level (age 20 and under) clubs is held annually from a pool of junior championship teams in Canada and the United States.

International club competitions organized by the IIHF include the Continental Cup, the Victoria Cup and the European Women's Champions Cup. The World Junior Club Cup is an annual tournament of junior ice hockey clubs representing each of the top junior leagues.

Ice hockey in Africa is a small but growing sport; while no African ice hockey playing nation has a domestic national league, there are several regional leagues in South Africa.

Ice hockey has been played at the Winter Olympics since 1924 (and was played at the summer games in 1920). Hockey is Canada's national winter sport, and Canadians are extremely passionate about the game. The nation has traditionally done very well at the Olympic games, winning six of the first seven gold medals. However, by 1956, its amateur club teams and national teams could not compete with the teams of government-supported players from the Soviet Union. The USSR won all but two gold medals from 1956 to 1988. The United States won its first gold medal in 1960. On the way to winning the gold medal at the 1980 Lake Placid Olympics, amateur US college players defeated the heavily favoured Soviet squad-an event known as the " Miracle on Ice" in the United States. Restrictions on professional players were fully dropped at the 1988 games in Calgary. NHL agreed to participate ten years later. The 1998 Games saw the full participation of players from the NHL, which suspended operations during the Games and has done so in subsequent Games up until 2018. The 2010 games in Vancouver were the first played in an NHL city since the inclusion of NHL players. The 2010 games were the first played on NHL-sized ice rinks, which are narrower than the IIHF standard.

National teams representing the member federations of the IIHF compete annually in the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championships. Teams are selected from the available players by the individual federations, without restriction on amateur or professional status. Since it is held in the spring, the tournament coincides with the annual NHL Stanley Cup playoffs and many of the top players are hence not available to participate in the tournament. Many of the NHL players who do play in the IIHF tournament come from teams eliminated before the playoffs or in the first round, and federations often hold open spots until the tournament to allow for players to join the tournament after their club team is eliminated. For many years, the tournament was an amateur-only tournament, but this restriction was removed, beginning in 1977.

Since the initial women's world championships in 1990, there have been fifteen tournaments. Women's hockey has been played at the Olympics since 1998. The only finals in the women's world championship or Olympics that did not involve both Canada and the United States were the 2006 Winter Olympic final between Canada and Sweden and 2019 World Championship final between the US and Finland.

Other ice hockey tournaments featuring national teams include the World Junior Championship, the World U18 Championships, the World U-17 Hockey Challenge, the World Junior A Challenge, the Ivan Hlinka Memorial Tournament, the World Women's U18 Championships and the 4 Nations Cup. The annual Euro Hockey Tour, an unofficial European championship between the national men's teams of the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia and Sweden have been played since 1996-97.

The attendance record for an ice hockey game was set on December 11, 2010, when the University of Michigan's men's ice hockey team faced cross-state rival Michigan State in an event billed as " The Big Chill at the Big House". The game was played at Michigan's (American) football venue, Michigan Stadium in Ann Arbor, with a capacity of 109,901 as of the 2010 football season. When UM stopped sales to the public on May 6, 2010, with plans to reserve remaining tickets for students, over 100,000 tickets had been sold for the event. Ultimately, a crowd announced by UM as 113,411, the largest in the stadium's history (including football), saw the homestanding Wolverines win 5-0. Guinness World Records, using a count of ticketed fans who actually entered the stadium instead of UM's figure of tickets sold, announced a final figure of 104,173.

The record was approached but not broken at the 2014 NHL Winter Classic, which also held at Michigan Stadium, with the Detroit Red Wings as the home team and the Toronto Maple Leafs as the opposing team with an announced crowd of 105,491. The record for a NHL Stanley Cup playoff game is 28,183, set on April 23, 1996, at the Thunderdome during a Tampa Bay Lightning - Philadelphia Flyers game.

Ice hockey is most popular in Canada, Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Northern Europe, and the United States. Ice hockey is the official national winter sport of Canada. In addition, ice hockey is the most popular winter sport in Belarus, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Finland, Latvia, Russia, Slovakia, Poland, Sweden, and Switzerland. North America's National Hockey League (NHL) is the highest level for men's ice hockey and the strongest professional ice hockey league in the world. The Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) is the highest league in Russia and much of Eastern Europe. The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) is the formal governing body for international ice hockey, with the IIHF managing international tournaments and maintaining the IIHF World Ranking. Worldwide, the International Ice Hockey Federation has 83 member national associations, comprising 60 full members, 22 associate members, and one affiliate member.

In international competitions, the national teams of six countries (the Big Six) predominate: Canada, Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. Of the 69 medals awarded all-time in men's competition at the Olympics, only seven medals were not awarded to one of those countries (or two of their precursors, the Soviet Union for Russia, and Czechoslovakia for the Czech Republic). In the annual Ice Hockey World Championships, 177 of 201 medals have been awarded to the six nations; Canada has won the most gold medals. Teams outside the Big Six have won only nine medals in either competition since 1953. The World Cup of Hockey is organized by the National Hockey League and the National Hockey League Players' Association (NHLPA), unlike the annual World Championships and quadrennial Olympic tournament, both run by the International Ice Hockey Federation. World Cup games are played under NHL rules and not those of the IIHF, and the tournament occurs prior to the NHL pre-season, allowing for all NHL players to be available, unlike the World Championships, which overlaps with the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs. Furthermore, all 12 Women's Olympic and 36 IIHF World Women's Championship medals were awarded to one of the Big Six. The Canadian national team or the United States national team have between them won every gold medal of either series.

Number of registered hockey players, including male, female and junior, provided by the respective countries' federations. Note that this list only includes the 36 of 83 IIHF member countries with more than 1,000 registered players as of November 2022.

Pond hockey is a form of ice hockey played generally as pick-up hockey on lakes, ponds and artificial outdoor rinks during the winter. Pond hockey is commonly referred to in hockey circles as shinny. Its rules differ from traditional hockey because there is no hitting and very little shooting, placing a greater emphasis on skating, stickhandling and passing abilities. Since 2002, the World Pond Hockey Championship has been played on Roulston Lake in Plaster Rock, New Brunswick, Canada. Since 2006, the US Pond Hockey Championships have been played in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and the Canadian National Pond Hockey Championships have been played in Huntsville, Ontario.

Sledge hockey is an adaption of ice hockey designed for players who have a physical disability. Players are seated in sleds and use a specialized hockey stick that also helps the player navigate on the ice. The sport was created in Sweden in the early 1960s and is played under similar rules to ice hockey.

Ice hockey is the official winter sport of Canada. Ice hockey, partially because of its popularity as a major professional sport, has been a source of inspiration for numerous films, television episodes and songs in Canadian and American popular culture.

McFarlane, Brian (1997). Brian McFarlane's History of Hockey. Champaign, IL: Sports Publishing Inc. ISBN 1-57167-145-5.

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