The men's ice hockey tournament at the 1936 Winter Olympics in Garmisch-Partenkirchen, Germany, was the fifth Olympic Championship, also serving as the tenth World Championships and the 21st European Championships.

The British national ice hockey team pulled off a major upset when they won the gold medal, marking a number of firsts in international ice hockey competition. Great Britain made history as the first team ever to win an Olympic, World, and European (its second) Championships and the first to win all three in the same year. It was decided that their team must be British-born this time, and while only one player on the team was born in Canada, nine of the thirteen players on the roster grew up in Canada, and eleven had played previously in Canada. CAHA president E. A. Gilroy had lodged a complaint with the LIHG in September 1935, but the LIHG had not held a meeting until the eve of the Olympics. Gilroy denied making a last-minute protest for fear of Canada (represented by 1935 Allan Cup runners-up Port Arthur Bearcats) losing to Great Britain. The Canadian Press reported that Canadian officials agreed to lift the suspensions on Foster and Archer after "considerable pressure had been brought to bear on Canadian officials by British Olympic higher-ups".

Still unhappy with the state of affairs were the Americans, who did not believe the rules were being followed, and the French, who were very angry that Canada did not repeal their protest with them. Before the second round of games began, other participating hockey nations threatened to protest the victories by Great Britain due to the use of CAHA players, and called for an emergency meeting.

Yugoslavia was to have competed, but dropped out on short notice. For the opening round, the 15 teams were drawn into three groups of four and one group of three. The top four finishers of the 1935 World Championships (Canada, Switzerland, Great Britain, Czechoslovakia) were guaranteed placement in separate groups. And despite the non-participation of the United States the previous year, the organizers recognized the relative strength of the American team, and guaranteed their placement would not be in World Champion Canada's group.

The tournament itself featured very close play for the medals. It was played in three rounds beginning with four groups, where the two best teams of each group moved on to two groups of four, where again the two best moved on to a final round robin group of four, to determine the medals. Gilroy was unaware of the playoff format in advance of the Olympics, and took objection to the sportsmanship of Canadian officials being questioned, after a special meeting decided not to alter the format.

In the final round, the British team beat Czechoslovakia, then played six scoreless periods against the USA before the game was called a tie, ensuring a silver or gold for the British. In the tournament's final game, Canada could win silver, and Britain gold, if Canada defeated the US. The Americans could still have deprived Britain of the gold with a win over Canada by a score that matched or bested Britain's goal ratio, for example 1-0 or 5-1. The Americans were very tired from the marathon scoreless tie, and lost one to nothing. The 1936 tournament was the first time in which Canada did not win the gold medal in ice hockey at the Olympic Games, which led to the CAHA and Gilroy being heavily scrutinized by media in Canada.

Another story of this Olympic hockey tournament was the participation of Rudi Ball. The German leadership allowed this top player to lead their hockey team at these German hosted Olympics, making him the only Jew to represent Germany at these Olympic Games.

Top scorer

{| class="wikitable"

! Team

! width="20"|GP

! width="20"|G

! width="20"|A !! width="20"|Pts

|- align=center

|align=left| Hugh Farquharson

|8||10||–||10

|}

There is some disagreement as to the totals of Farquharson, both the IOC and IIHF maintain that he scored ten goals. Assist totals were not officially tabulated at the time, and sources indicate anywhere from five to ten.

References

  • "International Hockey" by Dennis Gibbons
  • Jeux Olympiques 1936