title: Marquesas Islands

text: The indigenous people of the Marquesas suffered high death rates from diseases carried by Western explorers, such as smallpox and measles, because none of them had any immunity to them.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas lost more people to death from these diseases than any other island group in Polynesia. The population shrank from over 78,000 inhabitants in the 18th century to about 20,000 by the middle of the 19th century, and to just over 4,000 by the beginning of the 20th century, reaching an all-time low of 2,255 in 1926. After that, the population started to increase, reaching 8,548 by the time of the November 2002 census (not including the Marquesan community residing in Tahiti), and 9,346 by the time of the August 2017 census.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas Islands form one of the five administrative divisions ("") of French Polynesia. French and Tahitian are the official languages of government. The capital of the Marquesas Islands administrative subdivision is the settlement of Taiohae on the island of Nuku Hiva.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The sparsely populated Marquesas Islands are located from Tahiti. With 183,645 inhabitants (2012 census), Tahiti is the most populous island of French Polynesia, containing 68.5% of the total population of the grouping.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Residents of the Marquesas have chafed at Tahiti's overwhelming dominance, complaining of neglect by politicians based in Tahiti, and leaders have suggested developing a direct relationship with the metropole, the government in Paris, instead of depending on Papeete. As sentiment was rising in Tahiti in the 21st century for independence from France, several prominent Marquesan political leaders in 2007 floated the idea of the Marquesas Islands separating from French Polynesia but remaining within the French Republic. This has generated controversy in Tahiti, where pro-independence Tahitian leaders have accused the French central government of encouraging the separation of the Marquesas Islands from French Polynesia.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas Islands do not have a provincial or regional assembly, but since 2010 the six communes (municipalities) into which the Marquesas Islands are divided have gathered to form an intercommunality, the community of communes of the Marquesas Islands (in French: "communauté de communes des îles Marquises", or CODIM). As all communities of communes in France, the CODIM is not a full-fledged territorial collectivity, but only a federation of communes (in French Polynesia, only the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia and the 48 communes are territorial collectivities). The CODIM is governed by a president and by a community council ("conseil communautaire") which is made up of 15 delegates elected by the municipal councils of the six communes among their members, with each commune having a number of delegates proportional to the size of its population. The president of the CODIM and the community council have their offices in Atuona, on the island of Hiva Oa. The current president is Benoît Kautai, mayor of Nuku Hiva, who was elected president by the community council in July 2020 after the 2020 French municipal elections and is due to serve for six years until the next municipal elections.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The community of communes of the Marquesas Islands was created in 2010 with the aim of delegating powers both from the six communes and from the overseas collectivity of French Polynesia to this new intercommunal structure, due to the isolation of the Marquesas Islands and distance from the seat of the French Polynesian government in Tahiti. The government of French Polynesia transferred to the CODIM the power to oversee economic development. As a result, the CODIM is now in charge of drafting a blueprint for local economic development. The French Polynesian government also transferred to the CODIM the power to grant subsidies in favor of cultural and sports activities. Transfers of powers from the six communes to the CODIM have been extremely limited. Besides drafting a blueprint for economic development and granting subsidies for cultural and sports activities, the CODIM is currently in charge only of creating hiking trails, drafting studies for waste collection (but not actually managing waste collection, which the communes kept for themselves), drafting a blueprint for transports between the islands of the archipelago, acquiring computers and office equipment for the six communes of the archipelago, and offering legal and technical support to the six communes.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The French Polynesian public auditor ("chambre territoriale des comptes") has pointed out that the actions of the CODIM have been very limited and fallen short of its theoretical powers due to a very small budget (less than 100 million Pacific Francs, i.e. less than US$1 million). For example, the CODIM has not exercised its power to acquire computers and office equipment for the six communes of the archipelago, and more generally its creation has not led to a pooling of resources and expenses by the six communes. Most of the CODIM's budget has been spent on drafting a blueprint for local economic development, but the CODIM has neither the power nor the financial means to implement the blueprint and build the required infrastructure. The public auditor has called for an expansion of the powers and financial resources of the CODIM.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Administratively, the Marquesas Islands form a deconcentrated subdivision of both the French central State and the government of French Polynesia. As a deconcentrated subdivision of the French central State, the Marquesas Islands form the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas (), one of French Polynesia's five administrative subdivisions. The head of the administrative subdivision of the Marquesas is the ' ("State administrator"), generally simply known as ', also sometimes called ' ("head of the administrative subdivision"). The ' is a civil servant under the authority of the High Commissioner of the French Republic in French Polynesia in Papeete. The " and his staff sit in Taiohae, on the island of Nuku Hiva, which has become the administrative capital of the Marquesas Islands, having replaced Atuona on the island of Hiva Oa, which was previously the capital (although, in reverse to this general trend, Atuona was selected as the seat of the community of communes of the Marquesas Islands in 2010).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Acting as the representative of the French central State and delegate of Papeete's High Commissioner, the " of the Marquesas is in charge of:


title: Marquesas Islands

text: As a deconcentrated subdivision of the government of French Polynesia, the Marquesas Islands form the ' ("district of the Marquesas"), one of French Polynesia's four ' ("districts") created in 2000 by the Assembly of French Polynesia to serve as deconcentrated subdivisions of the government of French Polynesia in the islands away from Tahiti and Moorea. The head of the ' is the ', known as ' in French ("territorial administrator"), but the Tahitian title ' is most often used. The ' is the direct representative of the president of French Polynesia's government who appoints him. The ' and his staff sit in Taiohae on Nuku Hiva, same as the State administrator.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas Islands also form the electoral district of the Marquesas Islands, one of French Polynesia's six electoral districts for the Assembly of French Polynesia (see also Politics of French Polynesia).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas Islands are subdivided in six communes (municipalities). In each of the six communes the local residents with either a French or another EU citizenship elect a municipal council and a mayor in charge of managing local affairs within the commune. Three communes (Nuku-Hiva, Ua-Pou, and Hiva-Oa) are further subdivided into associated communes due to their larger population. The communes and associated communes are the only elected councils in the Marquesas since there does not exist a provincial or regional assembly for the entire archipelago (the community council of the CODIM (community of communes of the Marquesas Islands) is not directly elected by local residents, but is only made up of delegates chosen by the municipal councils of the six communes). Municipal elections are held every six years on the same day as municipal elections in the rest of France (see 2020 French municipal elections for the last municipal elections). Each municipal council then selects delegates among its members to sit in the community council of the CODIM in Atuona (on the island of Hiva Oa).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The places of birth of the 9,346 residents of the Marquesas Islands at the 2017 census were the following:


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Between the 2007 and 2017 censuses, the population of residents of the Marquesas Islands born in Tahiti rose by 50.5% (from 1,810 at the 2007 census to 2,726 at the 2017), and as a result, they made up 29.2% of the population in 2017. A lot of these arrivals from Tahiti, however, are children of Marquesans who had migrated to Tahiti and given birth there, and whose children are returning to the Marquesas, as can be seen in the language statistics: 50.8% of the Marquesas Islands' residents whose age was 15 or older and who were born in Tahiti and lived in the Marquesas at the 2017 census reported that the language they spoke the most at home was Marquesan, whereas 42.1% reported French, and only 6.6% reported Tahitian.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: 3,353 people born in the Marquesas Islands lived on the island of Tahiti at the 2017 census (down from 3,493 at the 2007 census), whereas 5,907 people born in the Marquesas Islands lived in the Marquesas (down from 6,106 at the 2007 census), and 705 lived in the rest of French Polynesia (up from 679 at the 2007 census). The total number of people born in the Marquesas Islands and living in French Polynesia decreased from 10,278 at the 2007 census to 9,965 at the 2017 census, as net births were not able to offset the departures to New Caledonia and Metropolitan France due to the economic crisis experienced by French Polynesia.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Most of the population of the Marquesas Islands is Christian as a consequence of the missionary activity of the Catholic Church, and various Protestant Christian groups. The main church in the area is the Cathedral of Our Lady of Taiohae ("Cathédrale Notre-Dame de Taiohae") seat of the Catholic Diocese of Taiohae ("Dioecesis Taiohaënus seu Humanae Telluris").


title: Marquesas Islands

text: According to 2017 data 90.1% of the population of the Marquesas Islands is affiliated with the Catholic Church an increase from 1950 when 87.3% of Catholics were recorded on the islands.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Although the Mendaña ships had chaplains on board, there does not appear to have been any serious attempt at missionary work in the Marquesas Islands. The first missionaries to arrive in the Marquesas from 1797, coming from England via Tahiti, were William Pascoe Crook (1775-1846) and John Harris (1754-1819) of the London Missionary Society. Harris could not endure the conditions at all and returned to Tahiti only a few months later. A contemporary report says that he was picked up on the beach, utterly desperate, naked and looted. Crook remained until 1799.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The American mission from Hawaii was no more successful. William Patterson Alexander (1805-1864), Benjamin Parker (1803-1877), and Richard Armstrong (1805-1860) arrived in the Marquesas in 1834 from Hawaii with their wives and a three-month-old baby. They returned the same year. In 1853, more missionaries led by James Kekela (1824-1904) arrived at Fatu Hiva with their wives from Hawaii, but were unable to remain there because of clashes with Catholic missionaries arriving on a French warship.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Protestants went to Hiva Oa, and also had little success. There were few converts; tribal warfare and human sacrifice continued. Protestant missionaries gradually left Hiva Oa and returned to Hawaii, and only James Kekela remained. In 1899, he returned to Hawaii, dying in Honolulu on 29 November 1904. Hawaiian-born missionary James Bicknell translated the Gospel of John into the Marquesan language in 1857.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: From 1838 to 1839, the Catholic mission was able to establish itself, supported by the French order "Pères et religieuses des Sacrés-Cœurs de Picpus" (founded in 1800). The missionaries spread from Mangareva to Tahuata, Ua Pou, Fatu Hiva and Nuku Hiva. They suffered the same hostile tribal reception as the previous Protestants. However, with the support of the French authorities, they were able to sustain themselves in the long run, despite the obstacles. They even managed to baptize King Moana of Nuku Hiva who, however, would die of smallpox in 1863.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The missionaries of all denominations did their best to eradicate the traditional culture in any way possible. Not only were the Christians disapproving of the long-enjoyed consumption of kava, the ancient and sacred tattoo artwork, and general dancing and traditional music, but they were especially horrified by tribal fertility/virility rites and skull dissection. However, they also tried and finally succeeded putting an end to cannibalism, human sacrifice and constant tribal warfare.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: French and Tahitian are the official languages of all of French Polynesia, but the Marquesan languages, in their various forms, remain the primary means of communication among residents within this archipelago, although knowledge of French is now almost universal among residents of the Marquesas Islands (see census data below).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Marquesan is a collection of East-Central Polynesian language dialects, of the Marquesic group, spoken in the Marquesas Islands of French Polynesia. They are usually classified into two groups, North Marquesan and South Marquesan, corresponding roughly along geographic lines.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The North Marquesan dialects are spoken on the islands of Ua Pu and Nuku Hiva, and South Marquesan dialects on the islands of Hiva Oa, Tahuata and Fatu Hiva. The dialects of Ua Huka are often incorrectly classified as North Marquesan; they are instead transitional. While the island is in the northern Marquesas group, the dialects show more morphological and phonological affinities with South Marquesan. The North Marquesan dialects are sometimes considered to be two separate languages: North Marquesan and Tai Pi Marquesan, the latter being spoken in the valleys of the eastern third of the island of Nuku Hiva, in the ancient province of Tai Pi.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The most striking feature of the Marquesan languages is their almost universal replacement of the or of other Polynesian languages by a (glottal stop).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: Like other Polynesian languages, the phonology of Marquesan languages is characterised by a paucity of consonants and a comparative abundance of vowels.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: At the 2017 census, 97.0% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that they could speak French (up from 94.1% at the 2007 census). 92.6% reported that they could also read and write it (up from 90.2% at the 2007 census). Only 1.9% of the population whose age was 15 and older had no knowledge of French (down from 4.4% at the 2007 census).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: At the same census, 66.9% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that the language they spoke the most at home was Marquesan (down from 67.8% at the 2007 census). 30.2% reported that French was the language they spoke the most at home (up from 30.1% at the 2007 census). 2.3% reported Tahitian (up from 1.4% at the 2007 census), and 0.6% reported another language (down from 0.7% at the 2007 census).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: 4.9% of the population whose age was 15 and older reported that they had no knowledge of any Polynesian language at the 2017 census (down from 7.2% at the 2007 census).


title: Marquesas Islands

text: There are four airports in the Marquesas, one each on the islands of Nuku Hiva, Ua Pou, Ua Huka, and Hiva Oa. The terrain of Tahuata is too irregular to allow for the construction of a landing strip without significant investment, and while the upland plateau of central Fatu Hiva is large enough to permit the construction of an airstrip, the island's minuscule population makes such an exercise of dubious benefit.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas are served by telephone as well as by radio and television, mainly from Tahiti. Recent additions include "Vini", a mobile phone service that is a commercial subsidiary of the public , the sole provider of fixed telephony in most of Polynesia. Over a period of about six years, Vini has expanded to cover most of the populated islands.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The Marquesas Islands have a rich tradition of art. Art of the Marquesas ranges from large wooden sculptures of ancestors created for temples to small, intricate personal ornaments made from bone and shell. Carved wooden objects were decorated in elaborate anthropomorphic and geometric motifs, similar to tattoo designs that are part of a traditional practice.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: The ecosystem of the Marquesas has been devastated in some areas by the activities of feral livestock. As a first step in preserving what remains, the Marquesan Nature Reserves were created in 1992.


title: Marquesas Islands

text: In 1996 Lucien Kimitete, the Mayor of Nuku Hiva, proposed that the Marquesas become a UNESCO World Heritage Site. In May 2022 public consultations on their listing began.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The Ice Hockey World Championships are an annual international men's ice hockey tournament organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF). First officially held at the 1920 Summer Olympics, it is the sport's highest profile annual international tournament.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The IIHF was created in 1908 while the European Championships, the precursor to the World Championships, were first held in 1910. The tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics is recognized as the first Ice Hockey World Championship. From 1920 to 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the World Championship for that year.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930 in which twelve nations participated. In 1931, ten teams played a series of round-robin format qualifying rounds to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. In 1951, thirteen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other six (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. This basic format would be used until 1992 (although small variations were made). During a congress in 1990, the IIHF introduced a playoff system. As the IIHF grew, more teams began to participate at the World Championships, so more pools (later renamed divisions) were introduced.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The modern format for the World Championship features 16 teams in the championship group, 12 teams in Division I and 12 teams in Division II. If there are more than 40 teams, the rest compete in Division III. The teams in the championship play a preliminary round, then the top eight teams play in the playoff medal round and the winning team is crowned World Champion. Over the years, the tournament has gone through several rule changes. In 1969 body-checking in all three zones in a rink was allowed, helmets and goaltender masks became mandatory in the early 1970s and in 1992 the IIHF began using the shootout. The current IIHF rules differ slightly from the rules used in the NHL. In 1970, after an agreement to allow just a small number of its professionals to participate was rescinded by the IIHF, Canada withdrew from the tournament. Starting in 1977, professional athletes were allowed to compete in the tournament and Canada re-entered. The IIHF requires that players are citizens of the country they represent and allow players to switch national teams provided that they play in their new nation for a certain period of time.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Canada was the tournament's first dominant team, winning the tournament 12 times from 1930 to 1952. The United States, Czechoslovakia, Sweden, Great Britain and Switzerland were also competitive during this period. The Soviet Union first participated in 1954 and soon became rivals with Canada. From 1963 until the nation's breakup in 1991, the Soviet Union was the dominant team, winning 20 championships out of 26. During that period, only three other nations won medals: Canada, Czechoslovakia and Sweden. Russia first participated in 1992 and the Czech Republic and Slovakia began competing in 1993. In the 2000s, the competition became more open as the "Big Six" teams–Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden, and the United States–have become more evenly matched.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: As this tournament takes place during the same period as the later stages of the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, many of that league's top players are not available to participate for their national teams or have only become available after their NHL teams have been eliminated, after playing 90+ games. North American teams, and especially the United States, have been criticized for not taking this tournament seriously. For example, USA Hockey often sent teams made up of younger NHL players alongside college players, not using top level stars even when they are available.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2015 World Championship, held in Prague and Ostrava, Czech Republic, was the most successful to date in terms of overall attendance; it was visited by 741,690 people and average attendance was at 11,589.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), the sport's governing body, was created on 15 May 1908 under the name Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace (LHG). In 1908, organized ice hockey was still relatively new; the first organized indoor ice hockey game took place on 3 March 1875 at Montreal's Victoria Skating Rink. In 1887, four clubs from Montreal formed the Amateur Hockey Association of Canada (AHAC) and developed a structured schedule. Lord Stanley donated the Stanley Cup and the trustees decided to award it to either the best team in the AHAC, or to any pre-approved team that won it in a challenge. The Eastern Canada Amateur Hockey Association (ECAHA) was formed in 1905, which mixed paid and amateur players in its rosters. The ECAHA eventually folded and as a result of the dissolution, the National Hockey Association (NHA) formed.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The Ice Hockey European Championships, first held in Les Avants, Switzerland in January 1910, were the precursor to the World Championships. It was the first official tournament meant for national teams, the participating nations were Great Britain, Germany, Belgium and Switzerland. In North America, professional hockey was continuing to grow, the National Hockey League (NHL), the largest professional hockey league in the world, was formed in 1917. The European Championships were held for five consecutive years but were not held from 1915 to 1920 due to World War I.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The IIHF considers the ice hockey tournament held at the 1920 Summer Olympics to be the first Ice Hockey World Championship. It was organized by a committee that included future IIHF president Paul Loicq. The tournament was played from 23 to 29 April. Seven teams participated: Canada, Czechoslovakia, the United States, Switzerland, Sweden, France and Belgium. Canada, represented by the Winnipeg Falcons, won the gold medal, outscoring opponents 27–1. The United States and Czechoslovakia won the silver and bronze medals respectively. Following the 1921 Olympic Congress in Lausanne, the first Winter Olympics were held in 1924 in Chamonix, France, though they were only officially recognized by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) as such in the following year.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Subsequently, every Olympic tournament up to and including the 1968 Winter Olympics is counted as the World Championship. Canada won the gold medal at both the 1924 and 1928 Winter Olympics. In 1928, the Swedish and Swiss teams won their first medals–silver and bronze, respectively–and a German team participated for the first time, finishing ninth.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The first World Championship that was held as an individual event was in 1930. It was held in Chamonix, France; Vienna, Austria; and Berlin, Germany. Canada, represented by the Toronto CCMs, defeated Germany in the gold medal game, and Switzerland won the bronze. Canada, represented by the Manitoba Grads, won the following year, and the Winnipeg Winnipegs won Gold for Canada at the 1932 Winter Olympics. At the 1933 World Championships in Prague, Czechoslovakia, the United States won the gold medal, becoming the first non-Canadian team to win the competition. As of 2022, it is the only gold medal the United States has won at a non-Olympic tournament.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Two days before the 1936 Winter Olympics in Germany, Canadian officials protested that two players on the British team—James Foster and Alex Archer—had played in Canada but transferred without permission to play for clubs in the English National League. The IIHF agreed with Canada, but Britain threatened to withdraw if the two could not compete. Canada withdrew the protest before the games started. Britain became the first non-Canadian team to win Olympic gold, with the United States taking bronze. Canada won the remainder of the World Championship tournaments held in the 1930s. The 1939 World Championships marked the first time that a team from Finland competed in the tournament. World War II forced the cancellation of the 1940 and 1944 Winter Olympics and the World Championships from 1941 to 1946.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Following World War II, Czechoslovakia's team was quickly improving. They won the 1947 World Championships, although a Canadian team had not participated in the event. In 1949, they became the third nation to win a World Championship tournament that Canada participated in. During the run-up to the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz, Switzerland, a conflict broke out with the two American hockey bodies: the American Hockey Association (AHA, a forerunner to USA Hockey) and the Amateur Athletic Union (AAU). The AAU refused to support the AHA's team because they believed that AHA players were "openly paid salaries" and at the time, the Olympics were strictly for amateur players. A compromise was reached that the AHA team would be allowed to compete but would be considered unofficial and unable to win a medal. By the end of the tournament, the AHA team finished fourth in the standings. Both Czechoslovakia and the RCAF Flyers of Canada won seven games and tied when they played each other. The gold medal winner was determined by goal average: Canada won the gold because they had an average of 13.8 compared to Czechoslovakia's average of 4.3.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: At the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway, the Edmonton Mercurys won Canada's second consecutive Olympic gold medal and their 15th World Championship in 19 competitions. It was the last time that a Canadian team would win an Olympic gold medal in hockey for 50 years. At the 1953 tournament, reigning champion Canada did not attend, while the team from Czechoslovakia withdrew because of the death of the General Secretary of the Communist Party of Czechoslovakia, leaving only Sweden, West Germany, and Switzerland competing in the top division. Sweden finished the tournament undefeated and won their first World Championship.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 1954 World Championships has been described by the IIHF as "the start of the modern era of international hockey." The tournament saw the first participation of the Soviet Union in international competition. The Soviet Union had organized its first ice hockey league in 1946, having previously focused on bandy. Led by coach Arkady Chernyshev, the Soviet national team finished their first six games undefeated. Canada, represented by the East York Lyndhursts, was also undefeated and, in the final game of the tournament, the two teams met for the first time in international competition. The Soviet Union won the game 7–2, becoming the fifth team to win a World Championship tournament. The 1955 World Championship was held in West Germany, and the two teams again met in the final game of the tournament. The game was so high profile in Canada that announcer Foster Hewitt flew to West Germany to provide play-by-play coverage. Both teams were undefeated and Canada, represented by the Penticton Vees, defeated the Soviets 5–0 to reclaim the World Championship. At the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina d'Ampezzo, Italy, Canada's Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen lost to both the Soviets and the United States in the medal round and won the bronze. The Soviets went undefeated and won their first Olympic ice hockey gold medal. It would be seven years until the Soviet Union won another World Championship.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 1957 World Championships were held in Moscow. Canada and the United States did not participate in protest of the Soviet occupation of Hungary. Most of the games were held in the Luzhniki Sports Palace, but the Soviet officials decided to hold the final game in a nearby outdoor soccer stadium. The game was attended by at least 55,000 people, which stood as a World Championship attendance record until 2010. In the final game, Sweden edged the Soviet Union to finish with six wins and one tie (the Soviet Union had five wins and two ties) and won the gold medal. Canada returned to the World Championship in 1958 and won two consecutive titles, with the Soviets winning silver both times. At the 1960 Winter Olympics in Squaw Valley, California, Canada, the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia and Sweden were the top four teams heading into the Games. All four were defeated by the American team, which won all seven games en route to its first Olympic gold medal.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 1961, Czechoslovakia defeated the Soviet Union and tied Canada to make it a three-way race for gold. In the final game, Canada defeated the Soviets 5–1 to win their nineteenth gold medal. The Trail Smoke Eaters became the final club team to represent Canada. The following year, Canada implemented a national team program, led by Father David Bauer. Canada would not win another world championship gold until 1994. In 1962, the World Championships were held in North America for the first time. The tournament was held in Denver, United States, and was boycotted by the Soviet and Czechoslovak teams. Sweden defeated Canada for the first time in the history of the competition and won their third gold medal.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: At the 1963 World Championships in Stockholm, the Soviet Union won the gold medal, beginning a streak of nine consecutive World Championship golds. The 1964 Winter Olympics in Innsbruck, Austria marked the first time that Canada failed to win an Olympic medal in hockey. The Soviet Union won all seven of their games and the gold medal, but Canada finished the tournament with five wins and two losses, putting them in a three-way tie for second place with Sweden and Czechoslovakia. Prior to 1964, the tie-breaking procedure was based on goal difference from games against teams in the medal round and under that system, Canada would have placed third ahead of the Czechoslovaks. The procedure had been changed to count all games and that meant the Canadians finished fourth. However, the Olympics also counted as the World Championships, and under IIHF rules, Canada should have won a World Championship bronze. In April 2005, the IIHF admitted that a mistake had occurred and announced that they had reviewed the decision and would award the 1964 Canadian team a World Championship bronze medal. However, two months later, the IIHF over-turned their decision and rejected an appeal in September.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The Soviets dominated the remainder of the decade. Following 1963, the team went undefeated in Olympic and World Championship competition for four years. Their streak was broken by Czechoslovakia at the 1968 Winter Olympics. Despite the loss, the Soviets still won gold. It was the last time that the Olympics were also counted as the World Championships. In 1969, the Soviet Union and Czechoslovakia played "the most emotionally charged games in the history of international hockey." The rights to host the tournament had originally been awarded to Czechoslovakia but they were forced to decline the rights following the Soviet-led Warsaw Pact invasion of the nation in August 1968. The tournament was held in Stockholm, Sweden, and with these international tensions, the Czechoslovak team was determined to defeat the Soviets. They won both of their games 2–0 and 4–3 but despite these wins, the Czechoslovaks lost both of their games to Sweden and won bronze.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: With European teams using their best players who are de facto professionals, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive and pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues. At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF voted to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional players at the 1970 World Championships. The rights to host the tournament were awarded to Canada for the first time–in Montreal and Winnipeg. However, the decision to allow the use of professionals was reversed in January 1970. IOC president Avery Brundage was opposed to the idea of amateur and professional players competing together and said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made. In response, Canada withdrew from International ice hockey competition. Canada's ice hockey team did not participate in the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics. Canada also waived their rights to host the 1970 World Championship, so it was held in Stockholm, Sweden instead.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Led by goaltender Vladislav Tretiak and forwards Valeri Kharlamov, Alexander Yakushev, Vladimir Petrov and Boris Mikhailov, the Soviet Union won gold at the 1970 and 1971 World Championships and the 1972 Winter Olympics. 1972 marked the first time that both the Olympics and World Championships were held in the same year as separate events. At the World Championships in Prague, the Czechoslovak team ended the Soviet team's streak and won their first gold since 1949. The Soviet team quickly returned to their winning ways, winning 1973 and 1974 World Championships. However, during the latter tournament, the Czechoslovak team defeated the Soviets 7–2. It was one of the biggest margins the Soviet team had ever lost by in an official game. The 1976 World Championships were held in Katowice, Poland. On the opening day of the tournament, Poland defeated the Soviet Union 6–4 thanks to a hat-trick from forward Wieslaw Jobczyk and the goaltending of Andrzej Tkacz. It was one of the biggest upsets in international hockey history; two months earlier at the 1976 Winter Olympics, Poland had lost 16–1 to the Soviets. The Soviets lost two more games and won the silver, and Czechoslovakia won gold. Poland finished seventh and was relegated to Pool B, the division in which teams play for ranking purposes and not the championship (now known as Division I).


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. The IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" of all players in the World Championships, and moved the competition to later in the season so players not involved in the NHL playoffs could participate. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of both the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's strict amateur-only policy. The IIHF also agreed to endorse the Canada Cup, a competition meant to bring together the best players from the top hockey-playing countries.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 1976 World Ice Hockey Championships in Katowice were the first to feature professionals although in the end only the United States made use of the new rule, recalling eight pros from the NHL's Minnesota North Stars and the WHA's Minnesota Fighting Saints. The first fully open World Championship was held in 1977 in Vienna, Austria, and saw the first participation of active Canadian NHL players, including two-time NHL MVP Phil Esposito. Sweden and Finland also augmented their rosters with a few NHL and WHA players. Many of the players on the Canadian team were not prepared for the tournament and were unfamiliar with the international game. The team finished fourth, losing both games to the Soviet Union by a combined score of 19–2. Czechoslovakia won gold, becoming the third team (after Canada and the Soviet Union) to win consecutive championships.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: As a result of these events, full world championship status was given to the IIHF World Under-20 Championship, which had been held annually since 1974 as an unofficial invitational tournament. Colloquially known as the World Junior Ice Hockey Championship, the event was structured after the World Championships, but limited to players under the age of 20. The World Under-18 Championship was established in 1999 and typically held in April. It usually does not involve some of the top North American-based players because they are involved in junior league playoffs at the time.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Starting in 1978, the Soviet team won five consecutive World Championships, and had an unbeaten streak that


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: lasted from 1981 through the 1984 Winter Olympics and until 1985. During that period, Canada remained competitive, winning three bronze medals. World Championship tournaments were


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 1987 World Championships in Vienna were over-shadowed by several controversies. At the beginning of the tournament, the roster of the West German team included Miroslav Sikora, a Polish-German forward who had previously played for Poland at the 1977 World Under-20 Championship. Sikora became a naturalized citizen of West Germany and played in the first three games, scoring a goal in a 3–1 win over Finland. Following the game, Finland launched a protest, demanding that the result be over-turned because the West Germans had used an


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: ineligible player. At the time, players were not allowed to switch nationalities under any circumstances and the IIHF agreed to overturn the result and award the two points to Finland. This angered West German officials, who filed a protest in an Austrian court. The court agreed with the West Germans, overturning the IIHF decision and allowing them to keep their points. The result affected the final standings because had the IIHF's decision stood, Finland would have advanced to the medal round instead of Sweden. However, the Finns finished out of the medal round, and Sweden won their first gold medal since 1962. The tournament format also became controversial because the Soviet Union finished undefeated in the preliminary round but the Swedish team, which had lost three games in the preliminary round, won on goal differential because of a 9–0 win over Canada in the medal round.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Before 1989, players that lived in the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia, and other nations behind the Iron Curtain were not allowed to leave and play in the NHL. In March 1989, Sergei Pryakhin became the first member of the Soviet national team who was permitted to play for a non-Soviet team. Several Soviet players, including Igor Larionov and Viacheslav Fetisov, wanted to leave and play in the NHL. Soviet officials agreed to allow players to leave if they played one final tournament with the national team. Players agreed to this, and the Soviet Union won its 21st World Championship. Shortly after, Soviet players began to flood into the NHL. Many of the Soviet Union's top players left, including the entire "Green Unit"–Larionov, Fetisov, Vladimir Krutov, Sergei Makarov and Alexei Kasatonov. The following year, the Soviet team won their final title at the 1990 World Championships. In 1991, Swedish forward Mats Sundin–the first European player to be drafted first overall in the NHL–led his team to the gold medal. The Soviets won bronze–the last medal the team would ever win.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The Soviet Union dissolved in December 1991. Nine former Soviet republics became part of the IIHF and began competing in international competitions, including Belarus, Kazakhstan, Latvia (which returned after a 52-year-long absence due to being part of the Soviet Union) and Ukraine. Russia was named the successor to the Soviet Union. With this flood of new teams, the IIHF expanded the number of spots from eight to twelve. From 1963 to 1991, only four teams won a World Championship medal: the Soviet Union, Czechoslovakia (failing to win a medal only three times), Sweden and Canada. The Soviets won a medal in every tournament they participated in (1954 to 1991). At the 1992 World Championships, Sweden won their second consecutive gold. Finland won the silver medal, the nation's first ever World Championship medal (the Finnish team had previously won a silver at the 1988 Winter Olympics).


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Czechoslovakia split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia in January 1993. The IIHF recognized the Czech Republic's team as the successor to Czechoslovakia and it retained its position in the top division. Slovakia's team began in the lowest division (Pool C) in 1994 and was forced to work its way up. Following this, the next decade was dominated by the so-called "Big Six"–Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States. From 1992 to 1996, five different teams won the World Championship. At the 1993 World Championships, Russia won its first title as an independent nation and the Czech Republic won its first medal (bronze). In 1994, the Canadian team finished the preliminary round undefeated and defeated Finland in the final to win their first World Championship since 1961. The following year in Sweden, the Finnish team won its first ever World Championship. Led by their top line of Saku Koivu, Ville Peltonen and Jere Lehtinen, the Finns defeated rival Sweden in the gold medal game. At the 1995 Pool B championships, Slovakia, led by Peter Šťastný won Pool B and was promoted to the top division, where it has remained ever since. In 1996, the Czech Republic won its first World Championship as a separate country. During this period, the United States was the only one of the "Big Six" not to win the World Championship, although they did win the 1996 World Cup of Hockey and their bronze at that year's World Championship was their first medal since 1962.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In the mid-1990s, several new teams such as Slovakia, Latvia, Belarus, Kazakhstan and Ukraine were quickly improving and older nations such as Austria, France, Italy, Norway and Switzerland were at risk of being relegated to Pool B. The IIHF feared that it would lose advertising revenue if that happened, so the number of teams was increased to 16 starting in 1998.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: From 1996 to 2001, the Czech Republic won six consecutive World Championship medals, including World Championship gold from 1999 to 2001, as well as gold at the 1998 Winter Olympics. In 2002, the Czechs were favoured to win, but were upset in the quarter final by Russia. In the gold medal game between Russia and Slovakia, Slovakian Peter Bondra scored in the final two minutes of the game and the nation won its first ever World Championship. At the 2003 World Championships, Sweden made one of the biggest comebacks in tournament history, rallying from a 5–1 deficit in their quarterfinal game against Finland to win 6–5. The gold medal game between Canada and Sweden went into overtime. Canada's Anson Carter scored the winning goal 13 minutes into play, but the goal had to be reviewed for ten minutes to determine if the puck had crossed the line. In a rematch of the two nations the following year, Canada won and repeated as champions.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2004–05 NHL season was locked out, and eventually cancelled, because of a labour dispute between the league and the players. The 2005 World Championships, which featured more top players than normal, was won by the Czech Republic. At the 2006 Winter Olympics, Sweden won the gold medal over Finland. Three months later, Sweden defeated the Czech Republic and won the 2006 World Championships. They became the first team to win Olympic gold and a separate World Championship tournament in the same year. At the 2007 World Championship in Moscow, Canada defeated Finland to win the gold medal. The following year, the tournament was held in Canada for the first time. Russia defeated the home team to win their first gold medal since 1993. The Russian team successfully defended their title with a 2–1 win over Canada in 2009.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 2009, NHL Players' Association director Paul Kelly suggested that the World Championships be held every other year and that the NHL go on break to allow full player participation. IIHF president René Fasel responded that the tournament has television contracts and hosting commitments and that a large change would be difficult to put in place.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2010 tournament took place in Germany. The first game, between Germany and the United States, was played at Veltins-Arena in Gelsenkirchen and was attended by 77,803 people, setting a new record for the most attended game in hockey history. The tournament was noted for having several surprising preliminary round results, including: Switzerland beating Canada for the first time in World Championship play; Norway defeating eventual champions the Czech Republic; and Denmark upsetting Finland and the United States en route to their first ever quarterfinal appearance. The German team, which had finished 15th in 2009 and only avoided relegation to Division I because they were set to host the 2010 tournament, advanced to the semi-finals for the first time since the new playoff format was adapted. They finished fourth, losing to Sweden in the bronze medal game. In the gold medal game, the Czech Republic defeated the Russian team, winning gold.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2011 tournament was held in independent Slovakia for the first time. Finland won its second world championship with a 6–1 victory over Sweden. The Czech Republic won the bronze medal over Russia.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2012 tournament was held in Sweden and Finland. Russia beat Slovakia in the final, while the Czech Republic beat Finland in the bronze medal game.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 2013, Switzerland finished the preliminary round undefeated before losing the gold medal game 5–1 to co-hosts Sweden. Switzerland's silver medal was the first for the nation since 1953. Sweden's gold made them the first team to win the tournament at home since the Soviet Union in 1986.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2014 tournament was held for the first time in independent Belarus in spite of concerns of the human rights abuses perpetrated by the authoritarian government. The tournament saw more upsets by the less prominent ice-hockey nations. France had beaten Canada for the second time in the modern history and made it to the quarterfinals. Eventual finalist Finland lost to Latvia and made it to the quarterfinals only due to a shootout win over Switzerland. The tournament was won by Russia (which had a stacked NHL squad compared to other teams who sent in younger players after the 2014 Winter Olympics), Finland won silver and Sweden won bronze defeating the Czech Republic.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The 2015 tournament was held in Prague and Ostrava, it was the most attended championship in history. It was to be the last appearance of Jaromír Jágr on the Czech national hockey team, and the home crowd had great expectations for its national team, who had failed to win a gold medal since 2010, matching its longest run without a win since the break-up of Czechoslovakia. However, the tournament was dominated by an excellent Canadian team, which went undefeated and beat Russia 6–1 in the gold medal match. Its captain, Sidney Crosby joined the Triple Gold Club, becoming the first player to achieve that honour as captain of each winning team. The bronze was won by the United States, leaving the Czechs with a second consecutive fourth place.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: 2017 tournament was won by Sweden who defeated two-time defending champions Canada 2–1 in a shootout.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The first World Championship to be held as an individual event was in 1930. Twelve different nations participated. Canada's team was given a bye to the gold medal game, and the rest of the nations played an elimination tournament to determine which nation would also play for the gold.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 1931, the World Championships switched to a similar format to what was used at the Olympics. Ten teams played series of round-robin format qualifying rounds were played to determine which nations participated in the medal round. Medals were awarded based on the final standings of the teams in the medal round. The format was changed several times in the 1930s, in some years there was a gold medal game, while in others the gold medal was awarded based on points.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 1937, the tournament format was again switched to being similar to the version used at the Olympics. A preliminary round involving 11 teams was played, then the top four advanced to the medal round and medals were awarded based on points; no gold medal game was played. A gold medal game was played in 1938; it was the last gold medal game played in the World Championships until 1992.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: In 1951, thirteen nations took part and were split into two groups. The top seven teams (Pool A) played for the World Championship. The other six (Pool B) played for ranking purposes. Generally eight teams played in the top-level Championship, although the number varied over the years, going as low as three (in 1953) and as high as twelve (in 1959). The same format was used until 1992. The format was criticized because often the gold medal winner was decided before the final game was played, such as at the 1988 Winter Olympics.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: As the IIHF grew, more teams began to participate at the World Championships, so more pools were introduced. Pool C games were first played in 1961 and Pool D was introduced in 1987. In 2001, the pools were renamed: Pool B became Division I, Pool C became Division II and Pool D became Division III.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The modern format for the World Championship features a minimum of 40 teams: 16 teams in the main championship group, 12 teams in Division I and 12 teams in Division II. If there are more than 40 teams, the rest compete in Division III.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: From 2000 to 2011, the teams were divided into four groups and played each other in a round robin format preliminary round, and the top 3 teams in each group advance into the qualifying round. The qualifying round is another round of group play with two groups of six, with the top four teams in each group advancing into the knockout playoff stage. The bottom four teams in the preliminary round played in another group as well; this group determined relegation. After a round-robin format, the bottom two teams were usually relegated to play in Division I the following year.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: From 1998 and 2004, the IIHF held a "Far East" qualifying tournament for Asian teams with an automatic berth in the championship division on the line. Japan always won this tournament, but finished last at every World Championship except in 2004, when they finished 15th. The IIHF discontinued the qualifying tournament following the 2004 tournament, and Japan was relegated to compete in Division I.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The main group features 16 teams. The 16 teams are split into two groups based on their world ranking. The ranking is based on the standings of the last Winter Olympics and the last four World Championships. The results of more recent tournaments have a higher weight in the ranking. The last World Championship has 100% value, the tournament before 75% and so on. The Olympic tournament has the same value as the World Championship the same year.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Beginning with the 2012 tournament, the qualifying round was eliminated, and the 16 teams divided into two groups of eight, with each team playing seven games in the preliminary round.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The top four teams from these groups advanced to the knockout playoff stage. In the quarterfinals, the first place team from one group played the fourth place team from the opposite group, and the second place team from one group played the third place team from the opposite group. The winners advanced to the semi-finals. In cases where the quarter-final venues were deemed too far apart to allow easy travel between them, the teams stayed within their groups for the quarters. The winners of the quarter-finals advanced to the semi-finals, with the winners of the semi-finals advancing to the gold medal game and the losers advancing to the bronze medal game.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Also starting in 2012, the relegation round was eliminated. Instead, the eighth-place team in each group was relegated to Division I.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division I is split into two groups of six, both groups play in round robin tournaments independent of each other and the championship division. Previously the top team from both groups was promoted to the championship, while the bottom team was relegated to Division II. Beginning in 2012, the top two teams from the 'A' group were promoted to the championship, the bottom team was exchanged with the group 'B' winner, and that group's last place team was sent to Division II.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division II works similarly to Division I, with two six-team groups where group 'A' promotes one team to Division I and group 'B' exchanges its last placed team with Division III. Division III is now composed of one group of six, and if more than six nations register for this, the lowest level, then a qualification tournament will be held.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The IIHF introduced Division IV, in the 2020 tournament. Kyrgyzstan hosted the 2022 Division IV Championship.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: At the first tournament in 1920, there were many differences from the modern game: games were played outdoors on natural ice, forward passes were not allowed, the rink was 56x18 metres (the current International standard is 61x30 metres) and two twenty-minute periods were played. Each side had seven players on the ice, the extra position being the rover. Following the tournament, the IIHF held a congress and decided to adopt the "Canadian rules"–six men per side and three periods of play.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: At an IIHF congress in 1969, officials voted to allow body-checking in all three zones in a rink similar to the NHL. Prior to that, body-checking was only allowed in the defending zone in international hockey. The IIHF later described the rule change as "arguably the most substantial and dramatic rule changes in the history of international hockey" because it allowed for a more aggressive game. The rule, which was first applied at the 1970 World Championships, was controversial: IIHF president Bunny Ahearne feared it would make ice hockey "a sport for goons." Several other rule changes were implemented in the early 1970s: players were required to wear helmets starting in 1970 and goaltender masks became mandatory in 1972. In 1992, the IIHF switched to using a playoff system to determine medalists and decided that tie games in the medal round would be decided in a shootout. The IIHF decided to test a new rule in 1997 that would allow two-line passes. Prior to that, the neutral zone trap had slowed the game down and reduced scoring. At the 1997 World Championships, teams were allowed to decide if they wanted to test the rule. Although no team accepted the offer, the rule was adopted. The IIHF described it as "the most revolutionary rule change since allowing body-checking in all three zones in 1969. [...] The new rule almost immediately changed the game for the better. The 1999 IIHF World Championship in Norway was a stark contrast to the finals the year before with many more goals scored and with end-to-end action – not defence – dominating play."


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The current IIHF rules differ slightly from the rules used in the NHL. One difference between NHL and IIHF rules is rink dimensions: the NHL rink is narrower, measuring 61x26 metres (200x85 feet), instead of the international size of 61x30.5metres (200x100feet). Another rule difference between the NHL and the IIHF rules concerns how icings are called. As of the 2013–14 regular NHL season, a linesman stops play due to icing using the hybrid icing method, instead of the former method, where a defending player (other than the goaltender) touched the puck before an attacking player was able to, in contrast to the IIHF rules that use "no-touch" icing, where play is stopped the moment the puck crosses the goal line. The NHL and IIHF differ also in penalty rules. The NHL, in addition to the minor and double minor penalties called in IIHF games, calls major penalties which are more dangerous infractions of the rules, such as fighting, and have a duration of five minutes. This is in contrast to the IIHF rule, in which players who fight are ejected from the game.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Since the 2005–06 season, the NHL instituted several new rules. Some of them were already used by the IIHF, such as the shootout and making the two-line pass legal. Others which were not picked up by the IIHF, such as requiring smaller goaltender equipment and the addition of the goaltender trapezoid to the rink. However, the IIHF did agree to follow the NHL's league's zero-tolerance policy on obstruction and required referees to call more hooking, holding and interference penalties. In 2006, the IIHF voted to eliminate tie games and institute a three-point system: wins in regulation time would be worth three points, overtime wins would be two points and over-time losses would be worth one point. The system was first used at the 2007 World Championships.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Since 2019, the World Championships banned the shootout for the Gold Medal Game. Multiple 20-minute golden goal overtime periods of 3-on-3 are played until whoever scores, which wins the game.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The World Championships have been open to all players, both professional and amateur, since 1977. The IIHF lists the following requirements for a player to be eligible to play:


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: If a player who has never played in an IIHF competition changes their citizenship, they must participate in national competitions in their new country for at least two consecutive years and have an international transfer card (ITC). If a player who has previously played in an IIHF tournament wishes to change their national team, they must have played in their new country for four years. A player can only do this once.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: As this tournament takes place during the same time period as the NHL's Stanley Cup playoffs, NHL players generally only become available if their respective NHL team missed the playoffs, or once they have been eliminated from Stanley Cup contention. It is therefore common for several NHL players to join the World Championships while the tournament is already in progress.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: As of 2020, the IIHF World Championships are split up into five different divisions. This is the alignment of the divisions, accurate as of the 2018 IIHF World Ranking. Teams that are not ranked are not included here, for a full list of IIHF members, see List of members of the International Ice Hockey Federation.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: E.G. ; 1953 – this means that the team was relegated to that division for the 1953 competition, and have been there ever since.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: The Championship division comprises the top sixteen hockey nations in the world. The 85th championship was held from 13 to 29 May 2022, in Tampere and Helsinki, Finland.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: A. The IIHF recognizes Bohemia, which joined in 1908, and Czechoslovakia as the predecessors to the Czech Republic, which officially became a member in 1993.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: B. The IIHF recognizes the Soviet Union, which joined in 1952, as the predecessor to Russia, which officially became a member in 1992.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: C. On 28 February 2022, IIHF decided to expel Russia and Belarus from the tournament due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division I comprises twelve teams. Group A teams compete for promotion to the Elite Division with the loser being relegated to Division I Group B. Group B teams compete for promotion to Division I Group A while the loser is relegated to Division II Group A. In 2023, Group A games will be played in Nottingham, United Kingdom from 29 April to 5 May, and Group B games were played in Tallinn, Estonia from 23 to 29 April.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: D. The IIHF recognizes Yugoslavia, which joined in 1939, and Serbia and Montenegro as the predecessors to Serbia, which officially became a member in 2007.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division II comprises twelve teams. Group A teams compete for promotion to Division I Group B with the loser being relegated to Division II Group B. Group B teams compete for promotion to Division II Group A while the loser is relegated to Division III. In 2023, Group A games will be played in Madrid, Spain from 16 to 22 April and Group B games will be played in Istanbul, Turkey from 17 to 23 April.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division III comprises twelve teams. Group A teams compete for promotion to Division II Group B with the loser being relegated to Division III Group B. Group B teams compete for promotion to Division III Group A while the loser is relegated to Division IV. In 2023, Group A games will be played in Cape Town, South Africa from 17 to 23 April and Group B games will be played in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina from 27 February to 5 March.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Division IV comprises four teams. Teams compete for promotion to Division III Group B. In 2023 games will be played in Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia from 23 to 26 March.


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: 84 championships (as of 2022); 63 teamsKey: Current division (if no window is coloured, country doesn't play in any competition in the current year)


title: Ice Hockey World Championships

text: Since 1954, the IIHF has given awards for play during the World Championship tournament. Voted on by the tournament directorate, the first awards recognised the top goaltender, forward and defenceman. In 1999, an award for the most valuable player was added. There is also an all-star team voted on by members of the media. In 2004, Canadian Dany Heatley became the first player to lead in scoring, win the MVP award, win the best forward award and be named to the all-star team in the same year. He repeated the feat in 2008.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus is the main extensor muscle of the hip. It is the largest and outermost of the three gluteal muscles and makes up a large part of the shape and appearance of each side of the hips. It is the single largest muscle in the human body. Its thick fleshy mass, in a quadrilateral shape, forms the prominence of the buttocks. The other gluteal muscles are the medius and minimus, and sometimes informally these are collectively referred to as the glutes.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: Its large size is one of the most characteristic features of the muscular system in humans, connected as it is with the power of maintaining the trunk in the erect posture. Other primates have much flatter hips and cannot sustain standing erectly.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The muscle is made up of muscle fascicles lying parallel with one another, and are collected together into larger bundles separated by fibrous septa.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus is the outermost muscle of the buttocks. It arises from connections to nearby structures in this area. It arises from the posterior gluteal line of the inner upper ilium, a bone of the pelvis, as well as above it to the iliac crest and slightly below it; from the lower part of the sacrum and the side of the coccyx, the tailbone; from the aponeurosis of the erector spinae (lumbodorsal fascia), the sacrotuberous ligament, and the fascia covering the gluteus medius (gluteal aponeurosis).


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus straightens the leg at the hip; when the leg is flexed at the hip, the gluteus maximus extends it to bring the leg into a straight line with the body.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: Taking its fixed point from below, it acts upon the pelvis, supporting it and the trunk upon the head of the femur; this is particularly obvious in standing on one leg. Its most powerful action is to cause the body to regain the erect position after stooping, by drawing the pelvis backward, being assisted in this action by the biceps femoris (long head), semitendinosus, semimembranosus, and adductor magnus.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus is a tensor of the fascia lata, and by its connection with the iliotibial band steadies the femur on the articular surfaces of the tibia during standing, when the extensor muscles are relaxed.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The lower part of the muscle also acts as an adductor and external rotator of the limb. The upper fibers act as abductors of the hip joints.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus is involved in several sports, from running to weight-lifting. A number of exercises focus on the gluteus maximus and other muscles of the upper leg:


title: Gluteus maximus

text: In cultural terms, the glutes are often considered a symbol of health and strength, and aesthetically appealing. They frequently feature in artwork which seeks to emphasise and celebrate physicality, and the ability to move dynamically and powerfully. They are usually shown to be efficiently proportioned and prominent.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: Evidence of such depictions of the gluteal muscles extends from at least Ancient Greece to the modern day.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: Functional assessment can be useful in assessing injuries to the gluteus maximus and surrounding muscles.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The 30-second chair-to-stand test measures a participant's ability to stand up from a seated position as many times as possible in a thirty-second period of time. Testing the number of times a person can stand up in a thirty-second period helps assess strength, flexibility, pain, and endurance, which can help determine how far along a person is in rehabilitation, or how much work is still to be done.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The piriformis test measures flexibility of the gluteus maximus. This requires a trained professional and is based on the angle of external and internal rotation in relation to normal range of motion without injury or impingement.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: The gluteus maximus is larger in size and thicker in humans than in other primates. Its large size is one of the most characteristic features of the muscular system in humans, connected as it is with the power of maintaining the trunk in the erect posture. Other primates have much flatter hips and cannot sustain standing erectly.


title: Gluteus maximus

text: In other primates, gluteus maximus consists of ischiofemoralis, a small muscle that corresponds to the human gluteus maximus and originates from the ilium and the sacroiliac ligament, and gluteus maximus proprius, a large muscle that extends from the ischial tuberosity to a relatively more distant insertion on the femur. In adapting to bipedal gait, reorganization of the attachment of the muscle as well as the moment arm was required.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" is the ninth and penultimate episode of the sixth season of HBO's fantasy television series "Game of Thrones" and its 59th episode overall. It was written by series co-creators David Benioff and D. B. Weiss, and directed by Miguel Sapochnik.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Jon Snow and Ramsay Bolton face off in a battle for control of Winterfell. Jon's force, mostly composed of Wildlings, is nearly defeated by the Bolton army, but the latter is overcome when Sansa Stark and Petyr Baelish arrive with the Knights of the Vale. The battle culminates in Ramsay's defeat and capture, followed by his death at the hands of Sansa. Meanwhile, Daenerys Targaryen defeats the Masters in Meereen and begins making new alliances.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" received immense critical acclaim, with several reviewers calling it a "masterpiece", and being praised as one of the series' best episodes as well as one of the greatest television episodes of all time. Critics described the battle in the North as "terrifying, gripping and exhilarating", Harington's performance received high praise, and Daenerys' reunion with her dragons at the beginning of the episode was deemed "thrilling". The eponymous battle took 25 days to film and required 500 extras, 600 crew members, and 70 horses. In the United States, the episode had a viewership of 7.66 million in its initial broadcast. It notably won the Emmy award for Outstanding Directing and Outstanding Writing; the episode was Kit Harington's choice to support his nomination for Outstanding Supporting Actor. Sapochnik also won the Directors Guild of America Award for Outstanding Directing in a Drama Series for the episode.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: This episode marks the final appearances of Art Parkinson (Rickon Stark) and Iwan Rheon (Ramsay Bolton).


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Daenerys, Tyrion, Missandei, and Grey Worm meet with the Masters, who offer terms of surrender. Daenerys counters that the meeting was called to discuss the masters' surrender, and proceeds to ride Drogon into Slaver's Bay with Rhaegal and Viserion to burn their fleet. Grey Worm kills two of the masters, but Yezzan is spared; Tyrion tells him to warn the other masters of Daenerys' power. Meanwhile, Daario leads the Dothraki to slaughter the Sons of the Harpy, who are massacring freedmen outside the city.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Theon and Yara arrive in Meereen and form an alliance with Daenerys, offering their fleet, and the Ironborn's renouncing their reaver lifestyle, in exchange for help in overthrowing Euron and recognizing Yara's claim to the Iron Islands.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Jon, Sansa, Tormund and Davos meet with Ramsay and his bannermen. Jon refuses Ramsay's offer of returning Sansa to him in exchange for a pardon, while Ramsay declines Jon's offer to settle their dispute with single combat. Ramsay also gloats that he has been starving his hounds in anticipation of feeding Jon and his advisors to them. Sansa assures Ramsay that he will die the next day.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: At camp, Sansa insists that the Starks' army is not big enough and warns Jon not to underestimate Ramsay. Davos and Tormund discuss their time serving Stannis and Mance and acknowledge that they may have served the wrong men in the past. Davos discovers the pyre where Shireen was burned and finds the wooden stag he carved for her, leading him to realize that she was killed by Melisandre.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: The armies gather outside Winterfell the next morning. Ramsay releases Rickon and has him run to Jon while shooting arrows at him. Jon rushes to intercept Rickon, but Rickon is killed just as Jon reaches him. Enraged, Jon charges at Ramsay, who orders the Bolton archers to fire and his cavalry to charge, and Davos orders the Stark force out of position to shield Jon. The ensuing battle leaves hundreds of Bolton and Stark soldiers dead, creating a wall of corpses and allowing the Bolton infantry to encircle the Stark forces while Smalljon's men prevent the Stark army escaping over the wall of bodies. Although Jon survives being trampled by the Wildlings, the Stark forces appear doomed when suddenly a horn sounds in the distance. Littlefinger and Sansa arrive with the Knights of the Vale, who easily smash the remainder of the Bolton army; Tormund kills Smalljon Umber in the chaos.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Ramsay retreats to Winterfell, but Wun Wun breaks down Winterfell's gates, and the Stark loyalists overwhelm the remnants of the Bolton garrison. A mortally wounded Wun Wun is finished off by Ramsay, who tells Jon that he has reconsidered the offer of single combat, and unsuccessfully fires arrows at him. Jon overpowers Ramsay and begins to beat him to death, but stops when he sees Sansa and orders him imprisoned instead, leaving Winterfell once more in the hands of House Stark.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: At night, Sansa visits Ramsay, who has been imprisoned in the kennels with his hounds. Sansa tells Ramsay that, with the Starks back in control of Winterfell, House Bolton will die with him. Ramsay insists that his hounds will not turn on him, but Sansa reminds him that he had purposefully starved them for the previous seven days. The hounds then proceed to devour Ramsay alive as he screams in agony. Sansa walks away, smirking in satisfaction over her tormentor's demise.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was written by the series' creators, David Benioff and D. B. Weiss. Elements of the episode are based on the sixth novel in the "A Song of Ice and Fire" series, "The Winds of Winter", which author George R. R. Martin hoped to complete before the sixth season aired. In an "Inside the Episode" segment published by HBO shortly after the episode aired, Benioff and Weiss said that the final battle was primarily inspired by the Battle of Cannae and the American Civil War. According to Weiss, "We went back to the Roman fight against the Carthaginians in the Battle of Cannae where the Romans got caught in an encirclement by Hannibal and just slaughtered to the man. We used that as our model". Benioff said, "The 'Battle of the Bastards' becomes incredibly compact. All these men, all these combatants, crammed into this incredibly tight space on the battlefield. You read accounts of the battles in the Civil War where the bodies were piled so thick it was actually an obstruction on the battlefield". Episode director Miguel Sapochnik said in an interview that the Battle of Agincourt was the original inspiration but the concept was adapted to fit budgetary constraints.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Weiss said that they wanted to depict a full-fledged battle, "From the beginning we knew that one thing we'd never had on the show was a true medieval pitched battle where two sides bring all the forces they can into play in some battlefield that's somehow negotiated or agreed upon and they go at each other until one of them wins and the other one loses. This is a staple of human history, and we started to look through film samples of it. There really wasn't one that both made you feel what it was like to be there on the ground and gave you a sense of the geography of the battle." According to Benioff, they also wanted to demonstrate the role luck plays in battle, "Just to feel the kind of randomness of it where there's arrows falling from everywhere, people are getting killed, people are getting trampled by horses, and so much of it is just luck. Jon Snow is a very skilled combatant, but part of the reason he survives this battle is just he gets lucky".


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: In the "Inside the Episode" featurette Benioff said about Daenerys Targaryen's transformation during the series, "I think Dany's been becoming a Targaryen ever since the beginning of Season 1". According to Weiss, "She's not her father and she's not insane and she's not a sadist, but there's a Targaryen ruthlessness that comes with even the good Targaryens". Benioff concluded, "If you're one of the lords of Westeros or one of her potential opponents in the wars to come and you get word of what happened here in Meereen, you have to be pretty nervous because this is an unprecedented threat. You've got a woman who has somehow formed an alliance where she has a Dothraki horde, a legion of Unsullied, she's got the mercenary army of the Second Sons, and she has three dragons who are now pretty close to full grown. So if she can make it all the way across the Narrow Sea and get to Westeros, who's going to stand in her way?"


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was the final episode for actor Iwan Rheon, who had played Ramsay Bolton since "Game of Thrones" third season. His first appearance was in "Dark Wings, Dark Words", as a then-unnamed "boy" who helps a captured Theon Greyjoy. Before he was cast as Ramsay, Rheon auditioned for the role of Jon Snow. In an interview, he described learning about his character's fate: "I had received half the scripts, five episodes, then I got the call. They joked, 'Isn't it great Ramsay ends up on the Iron Throne?' As soon as they said that I said, 'He's dead, isn't he?' It's cool. I've had four lovely seasons here. It's been great to be involved with such an amazing show. I think it's kind of right he goes down. Because what else is he going to do after this? He's done so many things. It's justified and it's the right thing to do. It's the right path. He's reached his peak. It's nice for the audience that he goes out on this high, if you will." In that interview, Kit Harington talked about Rheon: "I love Iwan's work. He's an incredibly detailed actor who's created a character who's remarkable and despicable."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was also the last episode for recurring character Rickon Stark (Art Parkinson), who had appeared since the series premiere episode "Winter Is Coming". In an IGN interview, Parkinson said that he was tipped off about his character's death: "Whenever I was told that I was coming back for Season 6, before they sent me through the scripts and stuff, they sent me through a ring just to say, 'Listen, so that you don't get a shock whenever you read the scripts, just know that you die this season. He continued, "Whenever I came back, I was excited to come back, and the scenes all seemed pretty amazing. I was so happy to re-embrace the character." According to Parkinson, he was sorry that Rickon would die but his manner of death was a compensation: "It was a cool death, and it was always going to be a good death, so at the same time, I was pretty happy."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Another character departure was Smalljon Umber, played by Dean S. Jagger. In an interview, Jagger talked about his casting: "I prayed for it. When I heard I got the part my knees buckled. It was a life-changing moment." Before becoming a professional actor, Jagger dug trenches and worked at a mattress factory to pay his way through acting school and was a professional rollerblader. Ian Whyte also made his last appearance in "Battle of the Bastards" as the giant, Wun Wun; he had played Gregor Clegane during the show's second season. Special-effects supervisor Joe Bauer said about Whyte's casting as Wun Wun, "We wanted a large performer because somebody who would be 14, 15 feet tall would have more weight and mass to move around, and a person who's a normal size would have a very difficult time pulling that off".


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who had directed the fifth-season episodes "The Gift" and "Hardhome". In an "Entertainment Weekly" interview before the episode aired, Sapochnik said he was brought on board by Benioff and Weiss after his previous-season success; "Hardhome" won several awards, including Primetime Creative Arts Emmy Awards. About how the episode should be shot, he said: "Every battle on "Thrones" is unique. I think that's why Benioff and Weiss keep doing them. In the case of 'Battle of the Bastards' – or 'BOB' as we affectionately called it in production – David and Dan wanted to do a thing of spectacle, a strategic pitchfield battle they hadn't had the resources to do back in season 1 or 2. I was particularly interested in depicting both the horror of war and the role of luck in battle." Benioff called Sapochnik's work on the episode some of the best in the series' history.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: It took 25 days to film, requiring 500 extras, 600 crew members and 70 horses. Benioff described the difficulty of coordinating horses in battle scenes, which is why they are rarely used except in "big budget war films". Weiss added, "Miguel's really outdone himself. Fully fleshed out medieval battles require a tremendous amount of resources and choreography to get them right. It feels like we're doing something fresh that you don't see on TV and movies very often." Four camera crews were used for the battle scene. The 500 extras were largely the Snow and Bolton armies as Wildlings, archers, swordsmen and spearmen. Each army was trained separately to create off-screen rivalry between the two groups, and visual effects were used to expand the army to thousands. Kristofer Hivju, who plays Tormund Giantsbane, said about the intensity of filming the scenes: "It was pretty intense, actually. When you have 20 people running around getting squeezed together, and you're trying to chop at another bearded guy with a sword, you are not out of danger. You're laying down in the mud, and one wrong step, you won't have a face anymore. It was very intense, and Miguel insisted on making it that muddy and messy. War is not beautiful. Sometimes you see action sequences where battles seem organized. I know that from how the Vikings fought. It's not beautiful. It's hard. It's hard work. We had to shoot moment-to-moment, chronologically. We would shoot one sequence 80 times per day."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: In an interview after the episode aired, Sapochnik detailed the process of filming the battle and called Akira Kurosawa's "Ran" an inspiration in shooting the scenes: "I watched every pitch field battle I could find (footage of real ones too), looking for patterns — for what works, what doesn't, what takes you out of the moment, what keeps you locked in. Interestingly one of the things I noticed is that staging of these battles through the years has changed dramatically. Back in the day you'd see these huge aerial shots of horse charges and there were two big differences. First, it was all real — no CGI or digital replication. And second, often when the horses would go down, you can kind of tell they got really hurt. Nowadays you'd never get away with that, and nor would you want to."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Asked about the greatest challenge in filming the battle, Sapochnik said: "Every time we charge the horses it takes 25 minutes to reset all the fake snow on the field and rub out the horseshoe prints. So how many times can we afford to charge the horses each day knowing we need to give time for a reset that's 10 times longer than the actual shot? Another thing was how to make 500 extras look like 8,000 when you are shooting in a field where there's just nowhere to hide your shortfall. It becomes a bit like a bonkers math equation. And finally: How do you get these guys riled up enough to run at each other and get covered in mud and stand in the rain and then run at each other again and again for 25 days, 10 hours a day, without them just telling you to piss off?" In an interview, he said that the single most difficult thing he was asked to depict was "having 3,000 horses running at each other, especially after we discovered that horses cannot touch each other. It’s illegal — it’s a very valid rule about protecting the horses. So the very thing we were trying to do was not allowed. And we only had 70 horses ... [The solution was] you would have one guy run into the frame, and then the horse rider would pull the horse, which means make the horse fall and lie down on its side. Later we would digitally superimpose another C.G.I. horse and make it seem like it had impacted the live one."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: According to the director, the scene was filmed on privately owned land in Saintfield, Northern Ireland, and they had only 12 days to shoot. After reading the script Sapochnik came up with a 48-day shooting schedule, which was whittled down to 25 days. The CGI of Ghost, Jon Snow's direwolf, in the episode presented difficulties; he was "in there in spades originally, but it's also an incredibly time consuming and expensive character to bring to life. Ultimately we had to choose between Wun Wun and the direwolf, so the dog bit the dust." Sapochnik said that a crucial scene was filmed off-script. After three days of rain, unable to finish filming as scripted, he suggested a scene in which Jon Snow was trampled and nearly buried alive by bodies; the director described the character pushing his way out as "rebirthing."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: In an interview about the "rebirthing" scene, Kit Harington said that it intended to mirror the Daenerys Targaryen scene at the end of the third-season episode "Mhysa" when Daenerys is held up by freed Yunkai slaves; in "Battle of the Bastards", Jon Snow emerges from the crushing crowd of the battle: "When the crush starts happening, he slows down, and there's that thing of peace where he thinks: 'I could just stay here and let it all end.' And then something drives him to fight up, and that moment when he comes up and grasps for breath, he is reborn again, which I found weirdly reflective of the scene where Dany is held aloft at the end of season three."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was the first episode in which Kit Harington and Iwan Rheon filmed scenes together and met on-screen. Rheon said that he had always wanted to film scenes with Jon Snow: "Anyone who has asked me, 'Who would you like Ramsay to meet?' My answer has always been, 'Jon Snow.' He's the antithesis of Ramsay. They're almost a yin and a yang. They both come from such a similar place yet they're so different. And even though they're enemies, they've both risen so far as bastards, which is almost incomprehensible, and now they're both here facing each other. They couldn't be any more different, yet more similar." In an interview, Harington talked about his fight scene with Rheon: "I actually did punch Iwan in the face twice by accident, which he took really well. He was really nice about it." According to Rheon, "The way I see it, if you don't get hit a couple of times doing that, you're not doing it properly."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: A notable goof occurred during the scene where Jon Snow mounts his horse in an attempt to rescue Rickon before Ramsay's arrows can reach him. As he's climbing into the saddle, Snow's Valyrian sword Longclaw and its scabbard can be seen bending wildly, betraying its status as a rubber stand-in.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: For the Daenerys scene at the beginning of the episode where the three dragons burn part of the Masters' fleet, Sapochnik credited VFX supervisor Joe Bauer and producer Steve Kullback for post-production work: "For this sequence David and Dan said that what they wanted to see was a 'demonstration' of what's to come. So I tried to approach it in the most elegant, epic, big-movie way I could." The director tried to design the shots with relative realism, inspired by footage of World War II Supermarine Spitfires in action. He based the dragon shots on wildlife footage, allowing them to break the frame: "These things should be so big and fast it's hard to keep up with them." To insert Emilia Clarke (as Daenerys Targaryen) into the scene, she rode a "multi-directional, computer-controlled hydraulic gimbal device shaped like the upper shoulders of the dragon"; Clarke was filmed separately in Belfast, Northern Ireland.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" featured the first meeting of Daenerys Targaryen and Yara and Theon Greyjoy, and Yara's first meeting with Tyrion Lannister. Gemma Whelan, who plays Yara, talked about filming the scene: "Oh my goodness – I was so excited when I saw that I had a scene with those two [Daenerys and Tyrion]." About the dynamic between the two women, Whelan said: "It's clear as the scene plays out that Yara quite likes Dany. We share a lot of little looks and there's some playful language in how we talk to one another – Dany asks if the Iron Islands ever had a queen, and Yara says, 'No more than Westeros.' They recognize the girl-power undertow between the two of them."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" was watched by 7.66 million American households in its initial telecast on HBO, slightly more than the previous week's rating (7.60 million viewers) for "No One". The episode competed with game seven of the 2016 NBA Finals. It had a 3.9 rating in the 18–49 demographic, the highest-rated show on cable television that night. In the United Kingdom, the episode was seen by 2.450 million viewers on Sky Atlantic (the channel's highest-rated broadcast that week) and had 0.118 million timeshift viewers.


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: "Battle of the Bastards" received immense critical acclaim, with many calling it one of the best television episodes of all time. Critics cited the size and scope of the battle in the North and Daenerys's scene with her dragons at the beginning of the episode. It has a 98% rating on the review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes from 65 reviews, with an average score of 9.08 out of 10. According to the site consensus, "'Battle of the Bastards' delivered one of the greatest battle sequences in the show's history, and some savagely satisfying vengeance as well."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: IGN's Matt Fowler gave the episode a 10 out of 10, writing in his review, "At this point, it seems like the pattern when it comes to the ninth episode of a given season of "Game of Thrones" is tragic death, amazing battle, tragic death, amazing battle, and so on. And this being Season 6, it was time to land on a phenomenal clash of swords and shields — and 'Battle of the Bastards' certainly delivered." He continued, ""Game of Thrones" did not disappoint when it came to this season's great northern battle, as Jon and Sansa's differences were spectacularly highlighted in a savagely strong war chapter that saw House Stark overcome huge odds to reclaim their home. Plus, Daenerys got to soar, as her dragons quickly stopped a violent siege with fury and fire." Jeremy Egner of "The New York Times" also praised the episode: "As directed by Miguel Sapochnik, who also oversaw last season's terrific 'Hardhome' episode, the lengthy sequence was terrifying, gripping and exhilarating, sometimes all at once, a sweeping display of all the different ways one can die on the battlefield." Egner called Ramsay's death an episode highlight ("Ramsay Bolton's demise was arguably the most eagerly anticipated death ever on "Game of Thrones" and the show handled it with flair, dispatching him in a poetic, canine-fueled fashion that was no less satisfying for being telegraphed early on"), and concluded about Daenerys's scene: "Daenerys Stormborn had a few words for the slave masters who launched their attack last week. Those words included 'surrender or die' and 'thanks for the ships', as we saw another thrilling action sequence that I believe reunited the dragon triplets for the first time since they were quite young." Myles McNutt of "The A.V. Club" wrote in his review, "This battle works as a climactic moment for "Game of Thrones" as a cultural event, selling us on the scale and ambition of the producers and their production teams, all who should be commended for the accomplishments from a technical perspective." According to James Hibberd of "Entertainment Weekly", "Was this the show's best episode? It's hard to immediately process that question. Maybe? Probably. It's almost certainly the most exciting hour and had the most jaw-dropping battle sequence we've seen yet on TV."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: Ed Power of "The Daily Telegraph" discussed the episode's refreshing strong-women theme: ""Game of Thrones" has been justly criticised for employing young actresses as wobbly-wobbly window dressing and, though the toplessness has been dialed back this season, it's still very much a calling card. However there are reasons for suspecting that the series is attempting to make amends — by arguing that Westeros would be far better off with women in charge. Even as Sansa was turning the tide at Winterfell, in Meereen, Daenerys and Yara Greyjoy were striking up a lady bromance — and seemingly rock-solid alliance — for the ages." Laura Prudom of "Variety" agreed: "After seasons of criticism over the show's misogyny (sometimes earned, sometimes not), it's thrilling to see an episode like 'Battle of the Bastards', where women like Dany, Sansa and Yara — and emasculated men (either figuratively or literally) like Tyrion and Theon — break the gears of war and the familiar patterns of violence by attempting to 'leave the world better than we found it', despite the examples set by the evil men who came before them." According to Sarah Larson of "The New Yorker", "Sansa watches calmly, then smiles. You've come a long way, baby. Or she's become a monster, and so have I. The women of Westeros are on the warpath."


title: Battle of the Bastards

text: The episode received a record six Primetime Emmy Awards, including awards for writing and direction. "Battle of the Bastards" has been nominated for 32 awards and has won 19.


title: James Connolly

text: James Connolly (; 5 June 1868 – 12 May 1916) was an Irish republican, socialist and trade union leader. Born to Irish parents in the Cowgate area of Edinburgh, Scotland, Connolly left school for working life at the age of 11, and became involved in socialist politics in the 1880s.


title: James Connolly

text: Although mainly known for his position in Irish socialist and republican politics, he also took a role in Scottish and American politics. He was a member of the Industrial Workers of the World and founder of the Irish Socialist Republican Party. With James Larkin, he was centrally involved in the Dublin lock-out of 1913, as a result of which the two men formed the Irish Citizen Army (ICA) that year; they also founded the Irish Labour Party along with William O'Brien. Connolly was the long term right-hand man to Larkin in the Irish Transport and General Workers' Union (ITGWU) until taking over leadership of both the union and its military wing the ICA upon Larkin's departure for the United States, then leading both until his death.


title: James Connolly

text: He opposed British rule in Ireland, and was one of the leaders of the Easter Rising of 1916, commanding the Irish Citizen Army throughout. Following the defeat of the Easter Rising and the arrest of the majority of its leaders he was taken to Kilmainham Gaol and executed by firing squad for his part in its proceedings.


title: James Connolly

text: Connolly was born in an Edinburgh slum in 1868, the third son of Irish parents John Connolly and Mary McGinn. His parents had moved to Scotland from County Monaghan, Ireland, and settled in the Cowgate, a ghetto where thousands of Irish people lived. He spoke with a Scottish accent throughout his life.


title: James Connolly

text: He was born in St Patrick's Roman Catholic parish, in the Cowgate district of Edinburgh known as "Little Ireland". His father and grandfathers were labourers. He had an education up to the age of about ten in the local Catholic primary school. He left and worked in labouring jobs. Owing to the economic difficulties he was having, like his eldest brother John, he joined the British Army.


title: James Connolly

text: He enlisted at age 14, falsifying his age and giving his name as Reid, as his brother John had done. He served in Ireland with the 2nd Battalion of the Royal Scots Regiment for nearly seven years, during a turbulent period in rural areas known as the Land War. He would later become involved in the land issue.