Did You Know: Ice Hockey was once a Summer Olympic sport?

Friday is the Opening Ceremonies for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics. Thousands of athletes from around the world will descend upon France to compete in 45 different sports and events. It's one of the greatest sporting events in our existence. The Olympics is the true showcase of sport and country, giving athletes a chance to wear their nationality on their sleeve while demonstrating what makes them great.

Of course, this isn't a year where we will see ice hockey. That's reserved for the Winter Olympics, which happen again in 2026. That year, they will be headed to Milan, Italy. The hope is that the NHL can come to an agreement with the IOC to add NHL players to the Olympics. It would be great to see Jack and Luke Hughes wearing Team USA jerseys. It will even be fun to see Timo Meier and Nico Hischier paired for Switzerland and Jesper Bratt representing Sweden.

Did you know, there was one year in Olympic history when ice hockey actually came to the Summer Olympics?

It was the first time that ice hockey was allowed at the Olympics. The year was 1920, and the Olympics were headed to Antwerp, Belgium. Athletes from around the world were finding transportation to Europe to take part in the showcase. 

In 1920, ice hockey was included as a new sport for the Summer Olympics in Belgium.

And they didn’t have much time to prepare. While a decision on sports being added to the Olympics is made as much as eight years in advance today, ice hockey became an official Olympic sport in January 1920, just three months before the start of that year’s Games. Because of the short runway, not every team could compete, but there were some very excited teams ready to play.

Five European teams committed to playing in the tournament, and the owner of the rink refused to let ice skating happen if hockey wasn’t also allowed to compete. It might have felt like some people held the organizers hostage to make it work, but work it did.

There were two dominant teams, and we mean dominant. Canada and the United States started their hockey rivalry early. The U.S. was crushing teams, beating Switzerland 29-0 to open the Games. They ended up losing to Canada 2-0, but it was by far the closest game for the Great White North. 

The rules were different back then, with a loser’s bracket to determine the silver and bronze medal instead of a true one-and-done tournament. The Americans dominated the loser’s bracket, eventually beating Czechoslovakia 16-0 in the silver medal game. After that, what’s now considered Czechia beat Sweden 1-0 to win the bronze medal.

Four years later was the first iteration of the Winter Olympics. Prior to 1924, the Winter Olympics did not exist, so anything relating to ice and snow had to be played in the summer. This sport, along with ice skating, was actually played in April as a pseudo kickoff for the Olympics. It was this special moment in time for the sport, its official invitation to prove it was an international sport.