1961 Ice Hockey World Championships

1961 Ice Hockey World Championships

Tournament details
Host country	Switzerland
Dates	1–12 March
Teams	8
Final positions
Champions	Canada (19th title)
Runner-up	Czechoslovakia
Third place	Soviet Union
Fourth place	Sweden
Tournament statistics
Games played	28
Goals scored	236 (8.43 per game)
Attendance	141,300 (5,046 per game)
Scoring leader(s)	Boris Mayorov (17 points)
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The 1961 Ice Hockey World Championships was the 28th edition of the Ice Hockey World Championships. The tournament was held in Geneva and Lausanne, Switzerland from 1 to 12 March 1961. The games were played outdoors on a frozen pool. A glare made it hard for players to see well, however photographers were able to get aerial pictures from the diving board. Canada, represented by the Trail Smoke Eaters,^[1] won their nineteenth international title. It would be 33 years before Canada won another World Championship.^[2] By beating out the Soviets for the Silver, the Czechoslovaks won their tenth European title. The final day was marred by political controversy when Willi Daume, president of West Germany hockey, forbade his team to take the ice against East Germany to avoid the possibility of honouring the East German's new flag.^[3]

A record twenty nations participated in three groups, with South Africa appearing for the first time.^[4] Teams were divided into the three tiers, roughly following the 1959 championships, and using qualification games, to establish an eight-team group A, a six-team group B, and a six-team group C. The South African team did not have the minimum number of players so forty-five-year-old federation president Tom Durling played despite not actually being a citizen of the country.^[5] Promotion and relegation did not begin yet, but it was a big step towards formulating the process.