Ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics
1948 Olympic hockey marked by disputes and Canada's fifth gold.
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The 1948 men’s Olympic ice hockey tournament in St. Moritz doubled as the 15th World Championships and the 26th European Championships. Canada, represented by the Ottawa RCAF Flyers—a team made up of Canadian Armed Forces members—took home its fifth Olympic gold and 12th World title. Czechoslovakia, the top European finisher, earned the silver medal and its eighth European Championship.
Switzerland’s Bibi Torriani, who helped his team win bronze, became the first hockey player to recite the Olympic Oath on behalf of all athletes. The tournament nearly didn’t happen due to clashes between the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace and the International Olympic Committee, plus a threatened boycott by the United States Olympic Committee after two separate American teams showed up. Writer Jack Sullivan called these Games “the most controversial, name-calling, complaint-filled, Winter Olympic Games ever held.”
Changes in world hockey since 1936
After Canada lost the gold in 1936, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association changed its definition of amateur and split from the Amateur Athletic Union of Canada, risking Olympic eligibility. In 1937, Eastern Amateur Hockey League president Tommy Lockhart broke from the U.S. Amateur Athletic Union over disagreements about Canadian-born players, struck a deal with the CAHA, and founded the rival Amateur Hockey Association of the United States. The CAHA and AHAUS formed the International Ice Hockey Association in 1940, with former CAHA president W. G. Hardy at the helm, seeking IOC approval on Canada’s terms. CAHA president George Dudley later threatened to pull Canada from the Olympics over the amateur definition, but the decision was postponed when the 1940 and 1944 Games were canceled due to World War II.
In 1946, the LIHG held its first postwar congress, expelling Germany and Japan, consolidating Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia into the Soviet Union, readmitting Austria, and welcoming Denmark. Paul Loicq stepped down after 25 years as LIHG president, succeeded by Fritz Kraatz in 1947. The LIHG also merged with the International Ice Hockey Association and recognized AHAUS—not the AAU—as the U.S. governing body.
Choice of the Canadian team
Canada skipped the 1947 World Championships and initially planned to skip the 1948 Olympics due to the IOC’s amateur definition.
Background
The hockey tournament was in jeopardy of not being played due to disagreements between the Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace and the International Olympic Committee, and a threatened boycott by the United States Olympic Committee when two American hockey teams showed up to play. Writer Jack Sullivan referred to the 1948 Winter Olympics as 'the most controversial, name-calling, complaint-filled, Winter Olympic Games ever held'.
The CAHA had decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics in disagreement with the definition of amateur by the IOC, but later chose the Ottawa RCAF Flyers to represent Canada. The LIHG met in September 1947 to decide on whether to have an ice hockey tournament at the Winter Olympics, or host a separate Ice Hockey World Championships elsewhere in Switzerland in 1948. After bitter negotiations which were not resolved until the night before the Olympics, the AHAUS team was allowed to play, but the IOC declared those games would not count in the standings.
More in International and Olympic Ice Hockey
Sources
Compiled from Wikipedia and the sources listed below. Text from Wikipedia is available under CC BY-SA 4.0; this entry is adapted from it.
- Wikipedia: Ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics (CC BY-SA 4.0).
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