The Canadian junior team has won a record 18 gold medals and has medaled in 33 of 45 events since 1977. Its success can be traced back to the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association's establishment of the Program of Excellence in 1982, which resulted in the creation of the first real national junior squad. This team played against the United States junior team, which had a huge impact on shaping both nations' young players.
Canada's senior men's team has also been successful, winning two gold medals at the Winter Olympics and one at the World Ice Hockey Championships. Their best performance at the Olympic level came in Salt Lake City where they took home the silver medal after being defeated by the United States in the final game of the tournament.
At the world championship level, Canada is even more successful with three gold medals and one silver. They won their first world title in 1991 in Sweden and have not been beaten yet since then. The Canadians' most recent victory was over the United States in the final game of the 2015 tournament in Montreal.
Canada's women's team has been successful at both the Olympic and world championships levels. At the Olympics, they have eight gold medals and one bronze. Their most recent win came at the 2010 winter games in Vancouver where they beat Sweden 4-3 in the final game of the tournament.
Canada has won 18 gold medals in the World Juniors' 44-year history, which means it has won gold in 40% of the events. As one might anticipate, Canada has sent a slew of outstanding players to the World Junior Championships. However, three athletes stand out from the crowd. Namely, Marc Delisle, Mike Epp, and Eric Radford all have four gold medals to their credit.
Canada's top scorer at the World Juniors is Marc Delisle, who is also the only player to have two hat tricks (in 2003 and 2005). In total, he has eight goals at the event. The other six players with multiple gold medals each have one.
Mike Epp is the best defensive player at the World Juniors with five goals allowed over seven appearances. He has one assist to show for his efforts. Eric Radford has four assists at the World Juniors but no gold medals to show for it. He does, however, have two silvers and a bronze to his name.
Canada last won the World Juniors in 2009. Since then, they have come away with a silver medal in 2013 and a bronze in 2011. Before then, they had not missed the podium since 2001 when they took third place.
Canada Canada's teams have won the most medals, fifteen in all, including nine gold. The United States is a distant second with seven medals, all but one of them silver.
Canada first entered an ice hockey team at the Winter Olympics in 1920. They have been almost continuously ranked as one of the top two or three nations ever since. The only exception was during World War II when no games were played because of the conflict.
Ice hockey is the most popular sport in Canada and many people believe it is part of the Canadian identity. This probably explains why so many Canadians have been involved with the game over the years.
One person who not many people know is that Hilda Joyce Wilson from Victoria, British Columbia became the first female president of the International Ice Hockey Federation when she was elected in 1971. She held this position for four years after which time she had also become the first woman to be elected to the board of directors of the NHL's Montreal Canadiens. She remained on this board for several years before she was replaced by her deputy president, Dr. Charles A. Lindbergh Jr. He too was a former president of Princeton University and had also flown the Atlantic solo non-stop in 1927. He in turn was succeeded by Mr.
The gold medals totaled eight. India's hockey team has won the most gold medals in Olympic history, with eight gold medals in 1928, 1932, 1936, 1948, 1952, 1956, 1964, and 1980. India also has the best overall record in Olympic history, having won 82 of 134 matches.
An average men's ice hockey game at the Olympics lasts about two hours. The first goal is usually scored by either country around the nine-minute mark of the first period. The second goal comes around the fifteen-minute mark. There are four five-minute breaks during the game, with a water break after each period. A full shift for an ice hockey player is three periods of 15 minutes plus one additional 5-minute break for a total of three 20-minute games per day, five days a week for six weeks. That's a total of 90 ice hockey games played over that span!
A single gold medal typically contains about 77.1 grams of gold. The gold medal for ice hockey at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Denmark was made from silver and had a weight of 45 grams. Today's gold medal is made from gold and has a weight of 31 grams.
India has never lost an Olympic match. The Indian team has won all it's matches by a margin of at least seven goals.
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