Ice hockey made its debut at the Antwerp Summer Olympics in 1920. Four years later, the inaugural Winter Olympics were held, which included an ice hockey competition. In Nagano 1998, a women's ice hockey event was added to the Olympic schedule. The ice hockey competition was also available to pros for the first time. In ice hockey, there are two gold medals up for grabs: men's and women's ice hockey.
Ice hockey was originally played at the Summer Olympics in 1920, with Canada winning gold, the United States coming in second, and Czechoslovakia coming in third.
For the first four Winter Olympic Games, Canada was unbeaten in ice hockey. In 1936, Canada suffered their first ice hockey defeat, with Great Britain earning the gold medal (though note that almost all of the British players lived in Canada).
The American Olympic Committee and the American Hockey Association both sent teams to St Moritz in 1948. As a result, the IOC disqualified both of them from competing for a medal.
The Soviet Union (USSR) competed in its inaugural Winter Olympics in 1956, winning the gold medal in ice hockey as well as the most medals of any country.
In Oslo in 1952, the Canadian ice hockey team won its seventh gold medal in eight Olympics, but it would be nearly fifty years until they won another.
The United States ice hockey team won gold for the first time in Squaw Valley in 1960, defeating both the Canadian and Soviet teams.
.Russian ice hockey team won its fourth straight gold medal at Innsbruck in 1976.
The United States ice hockey team upset the Soviet Union in the 'Miracle on Ice' contest at Lake Placid in 1980.
For the first time in 1998, the ice hockey competition was available to professionals. The Czech Republic took first place in the competition. For the first time, women competed in ice hockey. The United States defeated arch-rivals Canada 3-1 in the final of the inaugural women's ice hockey event.
In 2002, the Canadian men's ice hockey team won gold for the 50th time, exactly 50 years after the last time they had done it. In both situations, the Canadian women's ice hockey team triumphed, with the United States coming in second. Jarome Iginla, a member of the men's team, became the first black man to win a gold medal at the Winter Olympics.
For the first time in 2010, men's and women's hockey were played on smaller (60 x 26 m vs 60 x 30 m) NHL-sized ice in Vancouver, avoiding the construction of a new rink.
Since the Soviet Union won gold at the 1984 and 1988 Olympic Winter Games, the Canadian men became the first team to win back-to-back gold medals in 2014. Canada required overtime to win 3-2 in the women's competition, giving the team their fourth consecutive Olympic gold.
The NHL declared in April 2017 that their players would not be available for the 2018 Winter Olympics ice hockey tournament (but they are back for 2022).
A unified Korean squad made up of athletes from North and South Korea competed in the women's ice hockey event in PyeongChang 2018.
