Ice Hockey at the 1980 Winter Olympics

Dates 12 – 24 February 1980
Medal Events 1

The main venue for the 1980 Olympic ice hockey games was the Olympic Center. It has since been renamed the Herb Brooks Arena, in memory and honor of the coach that led the US team to victory after a surprise win over the Soviet Union, known as the “Miracle on Ice”. The building also plays home to the 1932 and 1980 Olympic Museum of Lake Placid. The second venue of the Games was the smaller Olympic Arena. In addition to the United States’ improbable victory, the tournament was also noteworthy for the return of Canada to Olympic ice hockey, after it had sat out the 1972 and 1976 tournaments.

For the first time since 1936, the tournament was not held as a strict round-robin event, although to be fair, from 1964-76, there had been medal and consolation pools, but both were contested as round-robins. In 1980 the 12 teams were separated into two round-robin pools (called Red and Blue Pools for the only time in Olympic ice hockey). The two leading teams from each pool advanced to the medal pool, which was also conducted as a round-robin except that results from the preliminary pools between any two teams were carried over to the medal pool.

Events

Event Status Date Participants NOCs
Ice Hockey, Men Olympic 12 – 24 February 1980 239 12
239 (239/0) 12 (12/0)

Medals

Event Gold Silver Bronze
Ice Hockey, Men United StatesUSA Soviet UnionURS SwedenSWE

Medal table

NOC Gold Silver Bronze Total
United States USA 1 0 0 1
Soviet Union URS 0 1 0 1
Sweden SWE 0 0 1 1