page_title: 1960 Winter Olympics
section_title: Ice hockey
hierarchical_section_title: 1960 Winter Olympics / Events / Ice hockey
caption_attribution_description: English: 1960 Winter Olympics, Squaw Valley. US - Russia ice hockey, final buzzer of the game won by the US 3 to 2.
context_page_description: The 1960 Winter Olympics, officially known as the VIII Olympic Winter Games, was a winter multi-sport event held between February 18–28, 1960, in Squaw Valley, California, United States.
  Squaw Valley was chosen to host the Games at the 1956 meeting of the International Olympic Committee. It was an undeveloped resort in 1955, so from 1956 to 1960 the infrastructure and all of the venues were built at a cost of US$80,000,000. It was designed to be intimate, allowing spectators and competitors to walk to nearly all the venues. Squaw Valley hosted athletes from thirty nations who competed in four sports and twenty-seven events. Biathlon and women's speed skating made their Olympic debuts. After a poll was taken indicating that only nine countries would send a bobsled team, the organizers decided the bobsled events did not warrant the cost to build a venue, so for the first and only time bobsled was not on the Winter Olympic program.
  Cold War politics forced the IOC to debate the participation of China and Taiwan. The United States supported Taiwan while the Soviet Union stood behind China.
context_section_description: The ice hockey tournament took place at Blyth Arena and the Squaw Valley Olympic Skating Rink.  Controversy over the amateur status of some of the players overshadowed the event. Canadian Olympic officials objected to the use of "professional amateurs" by Eastern Bloc countries, and especially the Soviet Union. They alleged that the Soviets were giving their elite hockey players phantom jobs in the military that allowed them to play hockey full-time, which gave Soviet teams an advantage that they used to dominate Olympic hockey tournaments for nearly 30 years.  This issue started coming to light during the 1960 Games and would culminate in a Canadian boycott of the Olympic hockey tournament at the 1972 and 1976 Winter Olympics.  The team from the United States won an improbable gold medal, defeating the favored Canadian and Soviet teams, who took silver and bronze respectively.  This was the first Olympic gold medal in ice hockey for the United States and it would mark the last time a Soviet team did not win the Olympic tournament until the United States victory at the 1980 Winter Olympics.
caption: Ice hockey match between the United States and Soviet Union. The United States won the game, 3–2.
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