page_title: 1952 Winter Olympics
section_title: Ice hockey
hierarchical_section_title: 1952 Winter Olympics / Events / Ice hockey
caption_attribution_description: Jersey in 1952 of the Edmonton Mercurys hockey team, the winners of the 1950 World Ice Hockey Championships (different jersey) in London, England, and the gold medal at the 1952 Winter Olympics in Oslo, Norway. On display at the Hockey Hall of Fame, Toronto, Canada. This #4 jersey worn by 1952 Assistant Captain Al Purvis. http://www.canoe.ca/2002GamesMercurys/98feb5_jones-sun.html)
context_page_description: The 1952 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VI Olympic Winter Games, took place in Oslo, Norway, from 14 to 25 February 1952.
  Discussions about Oslo hosting the Winter Olympic Games began as early as 1935; the city wanted to host the 1948 Games, but World War II made that impossible. Instead, Oslo won the right to host the 1952 Games in a contest that included Cortina d'Ampezzo in Italy and Lake Placid in the United States. All of the venues were in Oslo's metropolitan area except for the alpine skiing events, which were held at Norefjell, 113 km from the capital. A new hotel was built for the press and dignitaries, along with three dormitories to house athletes and coaches, creating the first modern athlete's village. The city of Oslo bore the financial burden of hosting the Games in return for the revenue they generated.
  The Games attracted 694 athletes representing 30 countries, who participated in four sports and 22 events. Japan and Germany made their returns to winter Olympic competition, after being forced to miss the 1948 Games in the aftermath of World War II.
context_section_description: A majority of the ice hockey matches took place at Jordal Amfi, a new hockey stadium built for the Olympics. Nine teams played in the tournament and Canada again won the gold medal. Canada had won all but one Olympic hockey tournament thus far, but in 1956 the Soviet team began to compete and ended Canadian dominance. Canada was represented by the Edmonton Mercurys, an amateur hockey team sponsored by the owner of a Mercury automobile dealership. Canada played the United States to a three all tie on the final day to clinch the gold, and the Americans won silver. Norwegian newspaper Dagbladet criticized the result, calling the game "fixed in advance". The official report of the USOC for the 1952 Olympics covers the game from a different perspective. According to the report, by the end of the game against Canada, the Americans were mentally and physically exhausted and after scoring the third goal and tying the game they decided to focus on defense in order not to lose silver. It is important to note that Canadians at the time were considered unbeatable and even tying that team was almost impossible. Sweden and Czechoslovakia ended up tied for third (Czechoslovakia defeated the Swedes in the head-to-head game, but according to the rules at the time they had to play a tiebreaker game because they were tied in points). Sweden won that game and avenged the loss in the round-robin. The Czechs believed they had already won the bronze when they defeated the Swedes in the round-robin, calling the decision to play a tie-breaking game a "plot of the capitalist countries". Canadian team was criticized for its rough play; although body checking was legal, it was not often used by European teams, and opponents and spectators alike took a dim view of that style of play.
caption: The jersey of Canada's Edmonton Mercurys, the ice hockey gold medal winners
exif: {"Image Make": "Canon", "Image Model": "Canon PowerShot S2 IS", "Image Orientation": "Horizontal (normal)", "Image XResolution": "180", "Image YResolution": "180", "Image ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Image DateTime": "2006:01:28 21:40:54", "Image YCbCrPositioning": "Centered", "Image Software": "Adobe Photoshop CS Windows", "Image ExifOffset": "324", "Thumbnail Compression": "JPEG (old-style)", "Thumbnail XResolution": "72", "Thumbnail YResolution": "72", "Thumbnail ResolutionUnit": "Pixels/Inch", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormat": "1234", "Thumbnail JPEGInterchangeFormatLength": "5598", "EXIF ExposureTime": "1/40", "EXIF FNumber": "27/10", "EXIF ExifVersion": "0220", "EXIF DateTimeOriginal": "2006:01:28 16:16:52", "EXIF DateTimeDigitized": "2006:01:28 16:16:52", "EXIF ComponentsConfiguration": "YCbCr", "EXIF CompressedBitsPerPixel": "5", "EXIF ShutterSpeedValue": "85/16", "EXIF ApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF ExposureBiasValue": "-2", "EXIF MaxApertureValue": "23/8", "EXIF MeteringMode": "CenterWeightedAverage", "EXIF Flash": "Flash did not fire, compulsory flash mode", "EXIF FocalLength": "6", "EXIF FlashPixVersion": "0100", "EXIF ColorSpace": "sRGB", "EXIF ExifImageWidth": "2267", "EXIF ExifImageLength": "1654", "Interoperability InteroperabilityIndex": "R98", "Interoperability InteroperabilityVersion": "[48, 49, 48, 48]", "Interoperability RelatedImageWidth": "2592", "Interoperability RelatedImageLength": "1944", "EXIF InteroperabilityOffset": "1084", "EXIF FocalPlaneXResolution": "11520", "EXIF FocalPlaneYResolution": "81000/7", "EXIF FocalPlaneResolutionUnit": "2", "EXIF SensingMethod": "One-chip color area", "EXIF FileSource": "Digital Camera", "EXIF CustomRendered": "Normal", "EXIF ExposureMode": "Auto Bracket", "EXIF WhiteBalance": "Manual", "EXIF DigitalZoomRatio": "1", "EXIF SceneCaptureType": "Standard"}