Winner’s medal issued by the International Ice Hockey Federation for the Squaw Valley 1960 Winter Olympics Ice Hockey World Championship. Gilt bronze, 58 mm, 85 gm, struck by Swiss medal manufacturer Huguenin. The front depicts a goalie in net and reads, “Championnat du Monde, World Championship, 1960”; the reverse reads, “Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace, International Ice Hockey Federation,” with the league’s logo in the center, and designates first place, “1er.”
Between 1920 and 1968, the Olympic hockey tournament also served as that year’s world championship for the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF); this is the IIHF gold medal awarded for the world championship held as part of the 1960 Squaw Valley Olympic Games. The 1960 Olympics hosted the first surprise United States victory in ice hockey—the first ‘Miracle on Ice’—when they went undefeated for the entire tournament. The Soviet Union had participated in the 1956 Winter Olympics in Cortina and utterly destroyed their competition, and in 1960 were heavily favored to repeat. However, an unheralded team of American amateurs from the college ranks stood at the top of the podium when it was all over. This medal is equally as rare as the 1960 Olympic gold medal for ice hockey, awarded only to members of this victorious United States team.
