Pickard attended the IIHF congress that debated whether ice hockey at the 1948 Winter Olympics would be played according to the strict International Olympic Committee (IOC) definition of amateur, or whether the IIHF would hold its Ice Hockey World Championships separate from the Olympic Games. Canada did not participate in the 1947 Ice Hockey World Championships and the CAHA had decided not to participate in the 1948 Winter Olympics in disagreement with the definition of amateur by the IOC. Pickard felt Canada was obliged to send a Canada men's national ice hockey team truly representative of the "greatest hockey country" in the world, and honestly take the Olympic Oath as amateurs. He stated that Canada would have been misunderstood, "if we had refused to participate because we did not get our own way".