Winner’s medal issued by the International Ice Hockey Federation for the Grenoble Winter Olympics Ice Hockey World Championship. Gilt bronze, 60 mm, 97 gm, struck by Swiss medal manufacturer Huguenin. The front depicts a goalie in net and reads, “Championnats du Monde, Worlds Championships, 1968”; the reverse reads, “Ligue Internationale de Hockey sur Glace, International Ice Hockey Federation,” with the league’s logo in the center.
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 1968 Grenoble Olympic Games. The 1968 Olympics saw the Soviet Union win its third Olympic ice hockey gold, and this medal represents their eighth IIHF world championship. The Soviets were undoubtedly the most dominant national ice hockey team of the 1960s. This medal is equally as rare as the 1968 Olympic gold medal for ice hockey, awarded only to members of the victorious Soviet Olympic team.
