The Czech Republic men's national ice hockey team is the national

ice hockey Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice ...

team of the

Czech Republic The Czech Republic, or simply Czechia, is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Historically known as Bohemia, it is bordered by Austria to the south, Germany to the west, Poland to the northeast, and Slovakia to the southeast. The ...

. It is one of the most successful national ice hockey teams in the world and a member of the so-called " Big Six", the unofficial group of the six strongest men's ice hockey nations, along with

Canada Canada is a country in North America. Its ten provinces and three territories extend from the Atlantic Ocean to the Pacific Ocean and northward into the Arctic Ocean, covering over , making it the world's second-largest country by to ...

Finland Finland ( fi, Suomi ; sv, Finland ), officially the Republic of Finland (; ), is a Nordic country in Northern Europe. It shares land borders with Sweden to the northwest, Norway to the north, and Russia to the east, with the Gulf of Bot ...

Russia Russia (, , ), or the Russian Federation, is a transcontinental country spanning Eastern Europe and Northern Asia. It is the largest country in the world, with its internationally recognised territory covering , and encompassing one-ei ...

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden,The United Nations Group of Experts on Geographical Names states that the country's formal name is the Kingdom of SwedenUNGEGN World Geographical Names, Sweden./ref> is a Nordic countries, Nordic c ...

and the

United States The United States of America (U.S.A. or USA), commonly known as the United States (U.S. or US) or America, is a country Continental United States, primarily located in North America. It consists of 50 U.S. state, states, a Washington, D.C., ...

. It is governed by the

Czech Ice Hockey Association The Czech Ice Hockey Association ( cs, Český svaz ledního hokeje, ČSLH) is the governing body of ice hockey in the Czech Republic. Structure According to the statutes, seven organs operate in the Czech Ice Hockey Association. Every two year ...

. The Czech Republic has 85,000 men players officially enrolled in organized hockey (0.8% of its population). The Czechs won the gold medal at the

1998 Winter Olympics The 1998 Winter Olympics, officially known as the and commonly known as Nagano 1998 ( ja, 長野1998), was a winter multi-sport event held from 7 to 22 February 1998, mainly in Nagano, Japan, with some events taking place in th ...

and won three straight gold medals at the world championships from

1999 File:1999 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The funeral procession of King Hussein of Jordan in Amman; the 1999 İzmit earthquake kills over 17,000 people in Turkey; the Columbine High School massacre, one of the first major school shoot ...

2001 The September 11 attacks against the United States by Al-Qaeda, which killed 2,977 people and instigated the global war on terror, were a defining event of 2001. The United States led a multi-national coalition in an invasion of Afghanist ...

. In the next three years, the team did not get a medal at the world championships—not even home at the 2004 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships held in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

and

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four riv ...

, thus keeping the "world championship home ice curse" alive. The following year, however, the Czechs won gold at the 2005 tournament, the only world championship where, due to the

2004–05 NHL lockout The 2004–05 NHL lockout was a labor lockout that resulted in the cancellation of the National Hockey League (NHL) season, which would have been its 88th season of play. The main dispute was the league's desire to implement a salary cap to ...

, all NHL players were available to participate. At the

2006 Winter Olympics The 2006 Winter Olympics, officially the XX Olympic Winter Games ( it, XX Giochi olimpici invernali) and also known as Torino 2006, were a winter multi-sport event held from 10 to 26 February 2006 in Turin, Italy. This marked the second ...

, the Czechs won a bronze medal, defeating

3–0 ( roster) in the bronze medal game. At the 2006 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships, the Czechs earned silver, falling to

in the final, the only time the Czechs have lost the final game of the tournament. The Czech Republic won the 2010 World Championships in Germany. For the first time in history, the Czech Republic did not qualify for the quarterfinals at the

2022 Winter Olympics The 2022 Winter Olympics (2022年冬季奥林匹克运动会), officially called the XXIV Olympic Winter Games () and commonly known as Beijing 2022 (2022), was an international winter multi-sport event held from 4 to 20 February 2022 in Bei ...

and finished in ninth place, their lowest placement in history, but won a bronze medal at the 2022 IIHF World Championship later the same year, ending its longest medal drought in IIHF tournaments in history, which had lasted since 2012.

Tournament record

Olympic Games

World Championship

World Cup of Hockey

Euro Hockey Tour

Team

Current roster

Roster for the 2022 IIHF World Championship. Head coach:

Kari Jalonen Kari Jalonen (born January 6, 1960) is a Finnish professional ice hockey coach and former player. Currently he is the head coach of Czech national team. He is not related to Finnish ice hockey coach Jukka Jalonen. Playing career A pr ...

Retired numbers

* 4 – Karel Rachůnek * 15 – Jan Marek * 63 – Josef Vašíček

Coaching history

;Olympics *1994 – Ivan Hlinka *1998 – Ivan Hlinka *2002 – Josef Augusta *2006 –

Alois Hadamczik Alois Hadamczik (born June 20, 1952) is a Czech ice hockey coach. He has been elected as a new president of Czech Ice Hockey Association in June 2022. He is the former head coach of Czech national team. His brother Evžen was a success ...

*2010 –

Vladimír Růžička Vladimír Růžička (; born 6 June 1963) is a Czech ice hockey coach and former professional player. Růžička was twice named the top player in the Czechoslovak Elite League, and was on the gold medal team in the Ice Hockey World Championship ...

*2014 –

*2018 – Josef Jandač *2022 – Filip Pešán ;World Championships *1993–1994 – Ivan Hlinka *1995–1996 – Luděk Bukač *1997–1999 – Ivan Hlinka *2000–2002 – Josef Augusta *2003–2004 – Slavomír Lener *2005 –

*2006–2008 –

*2009–2010 –

*2011–2013 –

*2014–2015 –

*2016 – Vladimír Vůjtek *2017–2018 – Josef Jandač *2019 –

Miloš Říha Miloš Říha (6 December 1958 – 31 August 2020) was a Czech ice hockey player and coach, who coached the Czech national team at the 2019 IIHF World Championship The 2019 IIHF World Championship was hosted from 10 to 26 May 2019 by Slovakia. ...

*2021 – Filip Pešán *2022 –

Uniform evolution

File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 1994 (WOG).png, 1994 Olympic jerseys File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 1996 (WC).png, IIHF jerseys 1996–1998 File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 1998-2002.png, IIHF jerseys 1998–2002 File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 2006.png, 2006 IIHF jerseys File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 2009.png, 2009 IIHF jerseys File:Czech Republic national hockey team jerseys - 2014 Winter Olympics.png, 2014 Olympic jerseys File:Czech Republic national team jerseys 2015.png, 2015–2019 IIHF jerseys File:Czech Republic national ice hockey team jerseys 2018 (WOG).png, 2018 Olympic jerseys File:Czech Republic national ice hockey team jerseys 2019 IHWC.png, 2019–2021 IIHF jerseys File:Czech Republic national ice hockey team jerseys 2021 IHWC.png, 2021– IIHF jerseys File:Czech Republic national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 (WOG).png, 2022 Olympic jerseys File:Czech Republic national ice hockey team jerseys 2022 IHWC.png, 2022– IIHF jerseys

References

External links

*
IIHF profileNational Teams of Ice Hockey
{{Footer Olympic Champions Men's ice hockey National ice hockey teams in Europe Ice hockey in the Czech Republic