It was a wild match. Hockey players from the Czech Republic and the United States fought for the bronze medal at the World Championship. After the second period, the American team led 3:2. But the Czechs scored six times in the last third and the Americans managed to respond with only one successful shot. The national team defeated the United States 8:4, and the Czechs brought home a medal from the World Ice Hockey Championship after ten years of fasting.
They have a total of 47 when taking into account the successes of the former Czechoslovakia, and they share the second place in the historical table with the Russians (when taking into account the results of the Soviet Union) and the Swedes. It is dominated by Canada with 52 precious metals.
As for the gold medals, the Czechs won 12 of them. The last time was in 2010, when the hockey team led by coach Vladimír Růžička completed their famous journey through the world championship in Germany with a 2:1 win over Russia. In the final match, the goalkeeper Tomáš Vokoun distinguished himself, who eliminated the Russian efforts for a long time and was surpassed only in the very end by the shooter Pavel Dacjuk.
But the historical gold ranking is once again dominated by Canada, whose team has 28 first places on its account, the Russian (formerly Soviet) team has one less. The Czechs are third with 12 successes.
The Olympic Games in Belgium in 1920 are considered to be the first hockey world championships. Czechoslovakia finished in 3rd place. Canada won, followed by the United States. Teams in this tournament more than a century ago consisted of seven players, one more than today. There were no substitutes, everyone played from start to finish. The matches were not officiated by any designated referee, but were whistled by players of third teams or their coaches.
The first gold medal was won by the Czechoslovak team at the first championship after World War II in 1947. The most successful scorer of the entire championship was Vladimír Zábrodský, who scored 29 times.
Two years later, in 1949, the Czechoslovak team won for the second time. Great joy came in 1972, when the Czechoslovaks won another gold after 23 years. Four years after the Russian occupation, the final match had a strong political undertone.
“Already during the previous World Cup in Switzerland, people told us: you don’t have to be the first, especially if you beat the Russians. We ourselves felt the same way, because we hated the Russians for a long time,” former striker Richard Farda recalls in an interview for Aktuálně.cz about the championship in 1972 The Czechoslovak team also won in 1976, 1977 and 1985.
In 1993, after the division of Czechoslovakia, two separate hockey teams were formed. Český was intended as a successor to the original Czechoslovak. In 1996, he won his first “independent” gold – at the World Championships in Austria.
The legendary golden era of Czech hockey started in 1998, when it was started by the Olympic victory in Nagano. The Czechs then won three more World Championships in a row between 1999 and 2001.
The representatives won another victory in 2005, five years later they won the championship for the last time. But the years 2011, 2012 and 2022 brought the Czech team bronze medals.
Last year, the Czech team finished in eighth place. At last year’s world championship, Canada took the gold. The Germans finished second, the biggest success for a team from their western neighbors in many decades. The last time they won a medal was 70 years ago.
