Winter Olympic Sports

Ice Hockey

History

Gold Medal Ice skating was first used as a helpful way to travel during winter in Scandinavian countries as far back as 5,000 years ago. They used animal bones like cattle and horses and would attach them to the bottom of their feet.

Gold Medal Different forms of “ball & stick” games have been played for hundreds if not thousands of years, but the modern indoor game of hockey started in the 1870s in Canada. Even the famous scientist Charles Darwin recorded a version of this game in the 1850s.

Equipment Used

Silver Medal Ice rink, goal net, hockey-style ice skates, helmets, face mask, mouth guard, full-body pads, protective gloves, puck, and hockey sticks.

Silver Medal A unique rubber makeup hockey puck, but the first outdoor pucks were frozen cow poop. People made other versions out of wood or stone.

Silver Medal Pucks are frozen before each game between -10 and -6.7 C (14-20 f).

Silver Medal The first hockey sticks were hand-carved from one piece of wood, usually from hornbeam or birch trees. Around the 1920s, 2 part sticks gained popularity but were still made all from wood. In the 1950s, people started wrapping the blades in fiberglass, and by the early 1990s, people made the whole hockey stick from carbon fiber.

Silver Medal The first hockey sticks had a flat blade, but in the 1960s, Chicago Blackhawks, Stan Mikita (a famous player) developed a curved blade. Today, this is the standard hockey stick all players use. Some claim that in the 1940s, someone else created the curved edge.

Rules

Bronze Medal This is a team sport. There are six players on the ice at one time, one being the goalie.

Each team will try to get the “puck” into the net by skating on the ice using their hockey sticks to hit the puck into the net. There are three periods in each game, each lasting 20 minutes. The team with the most goals at the end of the game wins.

2 events in this category

Men: 25 men make up this team, but only six play at once. No professional NHL hockey players are usually on the team, but all athletes have played in college or other leagues. Playing for a college leaves a chance for more amateur players to play. (added to the 1920 Antwerp (Belgium) Summer Olympics and then permanently added to the first official Winter Olympics in Chamonix (France) in 1924)

(1980 Lake Placid gold medal winners (USA) Jim Craig, Steve Janaszak, Bill Baker, Dave Christian, Ken Morrow, Jack O’Callahan, Mike Ramsey, Bob Suter, Neal Broten, Steve Christoff, Mike Eruzione, John Harrington, Mark Johnson, Rob McClanahan, Mark Pavelich, Buzz Schneider, Dave Silk, Eric Strobel, Phil Verchota, and Mark Wells)
Women: 23 women make up this team, but only six play at one time. No professional NHL hockey players are usually on the team, but all athletes have played in college or other leagues. Having no NHL leaves a chance for more amateur players to play. (Added to the Nagano (Japan) Winter Olympics in 1998)

(2018 PyeongChang gold medal winners (USA) Lee Stecklein, Cayla Barnes, Megan Keller, Kali Flanagan, Monique Lamoureux, Emily Pfalzer, Meghan Duggan, Haley Skarupa, Kelly Pannek, Brianna Decker, Jocelyne Lamoureux, Gigi Marvin, Hannah Brandt, Hilary Knight, Kacey Bellamy, Sidney Morin, Dani Cameranesi, Kendall Coyne, Amanda Kessel, Nicole Hensley, Maddie Rooney, Amanda Pelkey, and Alex Rigsby)