30 greatest one-time sports in Summer Olympics history

5. Ice Hockey
1920 Antwerp Olympics

Obviously, ice hockey has been in the Olympics was more than one time. In fact, it’s been at the Olympics a total of 25 years. However, the very first iteration of the sport was very different than all of the others. It was the one year that the Summer Olympics welcomed ice hockey.

It was 1920, and the Olympics were heading to Belgium. The sport of hockey was growing around the world, but it was largely known as a cold-weather sport. However, the Winter Olympics did not exist. So the Olympic Committee allowed their inclusion for 1920. 

And Canada won. The end. Okay, there’s more to the story than that. Canada actually chose the 1920 Allan Cup champion Winnipeg Falcons. They felt that would be better than hurrying to put together an amateur All-Star team. The United States finished with the silver medal. They did this while dominating every single team except Canada. The Americans won their first game against Switzerland 29-0. That’s not a typo.

The U.S. went to the silver medal game after losing to Canada in the semi-finals (the format was strange and didn’t give the loser of the gold medal game the silver, instead breaking out into a loser’s bracket tournament). In that game against Czechoslovakia, the U.S. won 16-0. Canada and the U.S. dominated everyone else, with Canada winning the gold medal game 12-1 over Sweden.