The organizing committee for the hockey matches included Paul Loicq, the captain of the Belgian team and a future president of the International Ice Hockey Federation. The games used the Canadian ice hockey rules, and the Bergvall system to determine medal winning teams. All matches took place in the Palais de Glace d'Anvers. The rink was smaller than North American standards, measuring long by wide. All games were played with seven players per side, with the rover position being used. The duration of each game was two periods of twenty minutes each. If any game had been tied at the end of the 40th minute, an additional two periods of five minutes each would have been added. And this process of adding two periods of five minutes each would have continued if the score were still tied at the end of any ten-minute addendum. This was the first ice hockey tournament at an Olympic Games, and the only ever instance of it at a Summer Olympics. An ice hockey tournament was part of the inaugural Winter Olympics in 1924 and has been part of every Winter programme since then.
Medalists
Participating nations
A total of 60 ice hockey players from 7 nations competed at the Antwerp Games:
Final tournament
Seven nations entered teams in the inaugural Olympic ice hockey tournament. The tournament format used the Bergvall system, starting with an elimination round to determine the gold medal winner. With seven teams in the tournament, France received a bye in the first round.
The three teams defeated by Canada in the gold medal round then played against each other to determine the second place team. Czechoslovakia received a bye into the silver medal game.
Lastly, the three remaining teams that were previously defeated by first place Canada or the second place United States played against each other to determine the third place team. Unlike the gold and silver tournaments, a blind draw was not held: as the organizers wanted to finish the tournament on time, and were reluctant to allow a team to play twice in one day, Czechoslovakia received a bye into the bronze medal game.
Matches - Gold medal round
Matches - Silver medal round
!colspan=8 style="background: lightblue;"|Semi-Finals !colspan=8 style="background: lightblue;"|Silver Medal Match
Matches - Bronze medal round
!colspan=8 style="background: lightblue;"|Semi-Finals !colspan=8 style="background: lightblue;"|Bronze Medal Match
Statistics
Average age
Team France was the oldest team in the tournament, averaging 32 years and 11 months. Gold medalists team Canada was the youngest team in the tournament, averaging 24 years and 5 months. Tournament average was 26 years and 9 months.
