The ice hockey tournament at the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympics had been Canada’s playground. The country had won six out of seven Olympic ice hockey tournaments and were ready to capture another gold medal, but they had two things playing against them in these Games: A team that lost several members due to professionalism, and the formidable Soviet Union.
Ice hockey was a little different back in Cortina 1956, as players wore hats (or “toques” if you’re Canadian), not helmets. Those wouldn’t come around until much later.
Being outdoors, the ice was also really fast. Check out a snippet of the action:
This tournament consisted of a round robin group stage, followed by a round robin final tournament with the top six teams. Host nation Italy wanted to perform well and recruited several Italian-Canadians to be on their team. Although they didn’t get into the final round, they still gave Italy its best finish in ice hockey at the Winter Olympics (ever).
Their play has inspired work on a documentary called Cortina Canadians:
The round robin finals format and the way the games played out meant a myriad of possibilities for the podium. The potential to have to go to Plan C to break a tie.
It all came down to the final day of play, and what we would think would be the gold medal game turned out to be anything but.
Listen on to hear how it all played out, and who were the surprise medalists at these Games.
Sources:
“1956 Winter Olympic Games.” Hockey Canada. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.hockeycanada.ca/en-ca/team-canada/men/olympics/1956/home
Arthur, Bruce. “Inside Milan’s Olympic hockey arena: It could have been much worse.” The Toronto Star. Feb. 4, 2026, Updated Feb. 7, 2026. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.thestar.com/sports/olympics-and-paralympics/inside-milans-olympic-hockey-arena-it-could-have-been-much-worse/article_f6f43f8d-2eca-4f2a-b871-7362f0b11ecf.html
Dier, Roger. “Once Upon a Time in Cortina.” USA Hockey. Feb. 1, 2026. Accessed Sept. 25, 2026. https://teamusa.usahockey.com/news_article/show/1354899
Duench, Janson. “70 years on, Italy’s best Olympic hockey finish still traces to Sault Ste. Mare.” The Sault Star. Feb. 14, 2026. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.saultstar.com/sports/70-years-on-italys-best-olympic-hockey-finish-still-traces-to-sault-ste-marie
Flood, Alex. “How pliers from northern Ontario helped shape Italy’s national hockey program.” CBC News. Jan. 10, 2026. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/sudbury/cortina-canadians-italy-ice-hockey-team-olympics-9.7036534
Holmyard, Braydon. “He captained Canada’s men’s hockey team at the 1956 Olympics in Italy. 70 years on, the way it ended still stings.” The Toronto Star. Feb. 20, 2026. Updated Feb. 22, 2026. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026.
Ice Hockey – Ice Hockey, Men. Event Page. Olympedia. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.olympedia.org/event_names/339
Ice Hockey, Men. Albertville 1992 Results Page. Olympedia. Accessed Sept. 25, 2026. https://www.olympedia.org/results/20604
Ice Hockey, Men. Cortina 1956 Results Page. Olympedia. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.olympedia.org/results/20203
McLean, Douglas. “Jack McKenzie —1956 Winter Olympic Champion.” Huntsville Doppler. July 18, 2026. Accessed Sept. 25, 2026. https://doppleronline.ca/huntsville/jack-mckenzie-1956-winter-olympic-champion/
Official Report of Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956. https://digital.la84.org/digital/collection/p17103coll8/id/12644/rec/25. Accessed May 12, 2026.
Pontecorvi, Silvia. “A hockey legacy between Canada and Italy.” OMNI News. Feb. 4, 2026. Accessed Sept. 22, 2026. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7amnaAD1M3s or https://toronto.citynews.ca/2026/02/04/italy-canadian-hockey-history-winter-olympics-milano-cortina-2026/
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TRANSCRIPT
This is an uncorrected machine-generated transcript and may contain errors. Please check its accuracy against the audio. Do not quote from the transcript; use the audio as the record of note.
Cortina 1956-Ice Hockey
Jill Jaracz: [00:00:00] Hello, and welcome to another history episode of Keep the Flame Alive, the podcast for fans of the Olympics and Paralympics. If you love the games, this is the show for you. my name is Jill Jaracz. I’m your host along with my lovely co-host, Alison Brown. Alison, hello. Buongiorno. How are
Alison Brown: you? Buongiorno.
I am so ready for today.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, man. We are looking at the hockey tournament today from [00:00:30] Cortina 1956. All year long we have been celebrating these games as it is the 70th anniversary of Cortina, which, you know, feels like Milano Cortina was forever ago. it’s like Milano Cortina 2026 was 70 years ago as well.
Alison Brown: I know. It’s– The time of this year has been some sort of time, vortex.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.
Alison Brown: Like, we, we don’t know what’s happening.
Setting the stage for the Cortina 1956 Winter Olympic ice hockey tournament
Jill Jaracz: Yes, but we know what’s happening today, right now. We’re going to talk about the biggest team sport [00:01:00] of the 1956 Winter Olympics. That is ice hockey, which at this point in time is still very much a men’s only sport. And ice hockey had not only been an original Winter Olympic sport, it was also at the Antwerp 1920 Summer Olympics as well.
And out of seven Olympic ice hockey tournaments, Canada had won six gold medals. The only time they lost was, uh, Great Britain beat them for the gold in [00:01:30] 1936, and the British team featured a lot of British Canadians, so they had that on their side.
Alison Brown: Yeah, Britain was very good with getting its colonies– You know, did the same thing with India and field hockey.
Jill Jaracz: Oh, right, right, right.
Alison Brown: It, it loves to get its colonies involved so it can win more medals under its flag.
Jill Jaracz: in this time, Canada has just been dominating they’ve dominated their opponents with a 37-1-3 record, and they have scored 403 [00:02:00] goals to their opponents’ 34. Oh, jeez. And of course, in 1956, Canada wants another gold, but this time they have some new Olympic competition, the Soviet Union.
Alison Brown: Ah, yes, of course.
Canada’s team selection
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and Canada had already had a taste of what the Soviets could bring on the ice, having lost the 1954 World Championships to them by a score of seven to two. But here they hoped they could get their mojo back and get a three-peat in terms of Olympic gold medals. [00:02:30] And Canada had an interesting selection process for their team, You might be familiar with this ’cause you did Chamonix 1924.
Rather than put together a group of all-stars from around the country like the US or have a national team like the Soviets did, they chose an existing city team to represent them.
Alison Brown: Which is an interesting way to go because, yes, it may not be the best players in the, in the world, but on the other hand, they [00:03:00] play as a team.
Right. And that’s so important. I mean, we’ve seen lots of all-star teams fall apart because you’ve got everyone’s a star, nobody’s a worker bee.
And where you have an existing team, you’re start, you’re not starting from zero, you’re starting from 100.
Jill Jaracz: So this Games, that team was the Kitchener-Waterloo Dutchmen, who were the reigning Allan Cup senior amateur men’s national champions.
Alison Brown: Okay, I already love them ’cause they’re from Kitchener. Which is such a hockey t- [00:03:30] Like, if you’re gonna talk about hockey cities, Kitchener, Winnipeg, like that’s the places that people play hockey.
Jill Jaracz: And Because they were, the Allan Cup championships, they might’ve been a sure contender for the gold. But five members of that Allan Cup-winning team were professionals who had been reinstated to play in amateur competition and win that Allan Cup. May have been okay for that tournament, not okay for the Olympics.
Alison Brown: Not gonna fly with the [00:04:00] Olympics.
Jill Jaracz: So those five pro-am players were replaced with players from the Junior B League. And as I understand it, in Canada, the top amateur league is Major Junior, and then in today’s hockey, then there’s Junior A and Junior B. And Hockey Canada says in its entry about Cortina 1956 that Junior B was a league below Major Junior.
So we’re already- Huh … down, we’re, we’re down at least to the second [00:04:30] layer. Two steps.
Alison Brown: Yes. Yeah. Yeah. Two steps down. That’s a surprise that they would do that.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: So we- I guess it’s who’s available also.
Jill Jaracz: Right? Because you’re in the winter and everybody has to have a job. I mean, some of- Right … these players were, like, teachers, and they had to get time off from school in order to, to be at the tournament.
so now we have Canada could have some issues with their lower-level players. But also, come on, it’s Canada, so everybody’s been skating as, as ear- as young as they could walk, you know?
Alison Brown: Even before. They just put ’em on the skates after [00:05:00] they give birth. Yes. You get your first, you get your first hockey stick in the hospital.
The Cortina 1956 ice rink
Jill Jaracz: Right. So at, at Cortina, you know, the ice stadium, which is the big stadium built for these games, had a giant outdoor rink for ice hockey. It was 300 feet long by 100 feet wide. And comparatively, Milano Cortina, which used a, European-sized rink, which measures 196.85 by [00:05:30] 85.3. So we-
Alison Brown: Tiny.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And that was slightly smaller than the NHL standards of 200 by 85.
So I mean, like, even the NHL rink is 100 feet less in one direction than this hockey rink.
Alison Brown: I think it’s so funny when we get into these early tournaments how this kind of thing comes up. You know, this, the, the rink is a random size.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: And the, the size of the teams are a random number of players, that there’s so little [00:06:00] consistency with things like that.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, this whole we’re still figuring everything out. Yes. Even, like, seven games into it. But, I mean, you do have a break from a big gap after World War T- or during World War II.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So I wonder how much of the institutional knowledge or when- Was
Alison Brown: lost.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, or when people were coming back were like, “We’re just happy to be here.”
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: Let’s just have a sh- let’s just have a game.
Alison Brown: Let’s, let’s just put on a show
Jill Jaracz: also because it was an outdoor rink, the ice was really fast. [00:06:30] Helpful. Another big difference at the time, the players wore hats, if they wore hats. They did not wear helmets.
Alison Brown: No helmets. That doesn’t come until the 1970s.
Cortina 1956 Ice hockey: The group stage
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, it’s, which is just crazy to me, but okay. So, the first phase of the tournament was a round-robin held in three groups. Group A was Canada, the unified team of Germany, Italy, and Austria. Group B was Czechoslovakia, USA, and Poland. And then Group [00:07:00] C was Soviet Union, and then Sweden and Switzerland. And the top two from each group would go on to the final round, which was also a round-robin tournament.
Alison Brown: Oh, still with the round-robin.
Jill Jaracz: Still with the round-robin. And the bottom-placing teams went to a consolation round to determine final placements. So, coming out of the round-robin, the top three in each group were undefeated. So, in Group C, uh, Soviet Union scored 15 goals, allowed four. [00:07:30] Group B, Czechoslovakia scored 12 goals, allowed six.
And in Group A, Canada scored 30 goals and allowed one.
Alison Brown: And- I see a little bit of a lopsided-
Jill Jaracz: Yes … competition. Because, because you have to note that Canada also had a 23 to zero win over Austria.
Alison Brown: Wow. That’s sad. And you know they probably eased up after a while and still just couldn’t help [00:08:00] themselves.
Like, once you get 10 up, you, you gotta take it easy. But you just can’t help it when the other team is just gonna allow you 23 goals.
Jill Jaracz: No, and you, you g- you want the goals, too. That’s the other thing, because goals come into play.
Alison Brown: Oh, that’s right,
Jill Jaracz: because the round-robin. Because we had such a round-robin- Yeah
Italy’s “disappointing” showing
situation. so the other teams advancing to the final round were Germany, USA, and Sweden. So, in my favorite book, ” The Official Report of Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956,” [00:08:30] technical delegate J.F. Ahern said that the level of play was extremely high and, quote, “At least five of the 16 reaching the final pool were possible winners,” end quote.
He also said that, quote, “The big disappointment was the home team, Italy, failing to reach the final pool.”
Alison Brown: Hockey was just not its thing.
Jill Jaracz: No, and, and I wanna take a second and defend poor Italy here, because this is just the third time [00:09:00] that Italy is in the Olympic ice hockey tournament. In 1936, they tied for ninth.
In 1948, they got eighth. And obviously they wanted to do well at home games, so they found a loophole in the el- international eligibility rules that were changed in 1953 to allow passport holders to represent a country. So Italy would allow people to get Italian passports that their parents had been born in Ger- in Italy.
So what did the hockey team do? They went to [00:09:30] Canada and recruited Canadian hockey players to move to Italy and become citizens and, and help their team to glory.
Alison Brown: You know, Italy did it again when they were, putting together a baseball team. Yes. They came to the United States, and because I happened to be at the consulate with three of the players-
Jill Jaracz: Right
Alison Brown: who did not have their paperwork in order, I wanna say. And the g- woman was so desperate to try and help these poor guys because she n- she had been given the directive that these guys [00:10:00] need to get their citizenship. Oh, boy. They need to get their passport- Oh, boy … because they gotta play for the team, but they did not have their paperwork in order.
Jill Jaracz: Mm-hmm. So overall, six Canadian-born men made the final 16-player roster for Italy, and unfortunately, even the addition of some Canadians were not able to propel Italy into the final round. They finished third out of fourth in their group with a, a 0-2-1 record, but then they won the consolation round-robin with the pool [00:10:30] with a 3-0 record and 21 goals, which was nine better than Poland, the next team, and this finish put Italy in seventh place overall.
And that is Italy’s best Olympic finish in men’s ice hockey to this day.
Cortina 1956 Ice hockey: The round robin finals
The final round was also a round robin, and, uh, the rules were if there was no clear winner based on the win-loss record, it would go to points. And if there were a tie in points, the gold would go to the team with the [00:11:00] best goal average. And of course, this tournament almost got down to that factor. Oops.
Yeah. So-
Alison Brown: Wow …
Jill Jaracz: during the round robin, there were three matches a day, so all teams played every day with one day off kind of in the middle of the week. And pretty quickly you could tell that there were two tiers of teams in the final. You had the Canada, the US, and the Soviet Union, who all had winning records and positive goal differentials, and then everyone else who did not.[00:11:30]
And poor Germany was especially outplayed in the final round. They went 0-4 and one. They scored six goals and allowed 35. Ooh. Yeah. That hurts. So the, the schedule, how that shook out was kinda interesting. So the Soviets played all of their easy games first, and then they played the US, and then finally, Canada for the final game of the tournament.
And the US alternated an easier opponent [00:12:00] with a harder opponent, and then faced– So they had Canada second, and then, the Soviet Union was their penultimate game. And, uh, so the US and Canada faced off for the first time against each other on the second day of the finals, and surprisingly, the US won four to one.
Alison Brown: My goodness
Jill Jaracz: Yeah, the US does not beat Canada. So John Mayasich got a hat trick in that game, scoring three of the four [00:12:30] goals, and he wrote about it in a letter to his wife saying, “We actually did the impossible.” And it was a big deal even in, like, the US Olympic Committee annual report for that year, because they were like, “Oh my gosh, we beat Canada.
We did not go in expecting this, but we did it.”
Alison Brown: You know, the first, the first miracle- Yes … of, of USA hockey.
Gaming out all of the possible podium possibilities
Jill Jaracz: So we’re going into the final game. Standings are Soviet Union is 4-0. [00:13:00] They’re undefeated. Canada is 3-1, and their one loss is to the USA, one to four, one goal to four goals.
Alison Brown: Okay.
Jill Jaracz: Okay? So the USA is also at 3-1.
Their loss is to the Soviet Union. They lost 0-4. They were- Okay … shut out by the Soviet Union. And then Czechoslovakia is the next one. They are at 1-3. So-
Alison Brown: Okay, so they’re sort of [00:13:30] hanging out here in, in- Yes … the background.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. So how does everybody stack up in terms of goals scored?
You– Soviets and Canada are tied at 23, and they have to play each other on the last day.
Alison Brown: So this is basically a gold medal game.
Jill Jaracz: Basically, yes, because it’s the- Excellent … uh, uh, and US is at 17, six behind, but as we have seen with these scores, anything can happen, and Czechoslovakia’s at 16.
Matches for the [00:14:00] final day are, there’s one kind of throwaway game, but there’s USSR and Canada and USA versus Czechoslovakia
so, US had lost to Czechoslovakia in the group stage by a score of 4-3. And in that final round robin tournament, Czechs fell apart.
Alison Brown: Oh, no.
Jill Jaracz: And they had a one and three record, so even if Czechoslovakia won this game against the US, the US would have a better overall record, so they would win the medal. [00:14:30] The question is, what color would it be?
So if the US loses, they will have a three and two record. If Canada loses to the Soviets, they will have a three and two record. So then it comes down to goals. Canada has a six-goal lead in terms of goals scored, pretty sizable, but Czechoslovakia has given up seven goals in a game in the final round before, so anything- Right
is possible.
Alison Brown: So if the Soviet Union wins the game against Canada, it’s the [00:15:00] gold medalist outright.
Jill Jaracz: Yes, ’cause they would be undefeated.
Alison Brown: Undefeated. It’s if the Soviet Union loses to Canada-
Jill Jaracz: Yes …
Alison Brown: that a lot of these things start coming into play.
Jill Jaracz: Right, because if the Soviets lose to Canada, they’re four and one.
Canada is four and one. If the US beats Czechoslovakia, they are also four and one.
Alison Brown: Oh my goodness
Jill Jaracz: Exactly. Okay, so if Canada wins and the USA loses, [00:15:30] the Soviets and Canada both have this four and one record. By default, Canada would win because they would obviously have more goals than the Soviet Union. Right. Okay? In this same scenario, if the US loses, Soviets get silver and US the bronze because Soviet’s record is also better.
Better. Okay. If Canada wins and the US wins, there’s a three-way tie. It was possible that there could have been a tie on points and they’d have to go to goal average. [00:16:00] Does your head hurt?
Alison Brown: A little bit. But that’s okay ’cause I know it’ll all be sorted out in the end.
The final day of play
Jill Jaracz: Okay. So the final day starts at 3:00 PM with Germany versus Sweden.
They play to a one-one tie. Closest Germany gets to winning a game in the finals.
Alison Brown: Poor Germany.
Jill Jaracz: 7:00, US against Czechoslovakia. First period’s tight, but USA got on the board with one goal. They added another within the first minute of the [00:16:30] second period, but a few minutes later, Czechoslovakia answered, scores two to one.
Less than a minute later, US is down a man, but they still get a goal. So now it’s three-one USA.
Alison Brown: Ooh, I love a shorthanded goal.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Oh, that’s cool.
Jill Jaracz: Czechoslovakia closes the gap, three-two.
Alison Brown: Oh my
Jill Jaracz: goodness. But by the end of period two, it’s four-two USA. Then in the third period, US just comes storming out and they get five goals in the third.
In
Alison Brown: [00:17:00] that period?
Jill Jaracz: Four of them from Dick Doherty. Alone. Gets a hat trick plus. Plus. And, Czechoslovakia, which ha- who had no penalties the entire game, and the US is getting, getting some penalties, they cannot capitalize on that, and the final score is nine to four.
Alison Brown: Okay, that’s good.
Jill Jaracz: That’s good for the US because now they’ve really bumped up the points.
Alison Brown: Right.
Jill Jaracz: huge win. They now have [00:17:30] 26 points, and the Soviets and Canadians have 23
So there is a world- We gotta see what happens in
Alison Brown: this-
Jill Jaracz: Yes … where the USA could win the gold. There is a world where the US could win the gold, yes. And final game is Soviet Union versus Canada. So, once again, if Canada wins, all three teams have a record of four to one, and we go to points. Canada would need to get at least four goals to get the gold.
If they get three, they tie with the US, it goes to goal average. If Canada wins but [00:18:00] only gets two goals, US gets the gold And we don’t have to think too much harder because the Soviets do win.
Alison Brown: Oh.
Jill Jaracz: And this was a very rough match. Seven penalties for Canada, three for the Soviet Union. Game scoreless at the end of the first, but the Soviets broke through in the second period with a goal, and then they added a second one in the third for a 2-0 win final score.
Alison Brown: Oh. So wait a second. With that [00:18:30] 2-0 win, where do we end up?
Jill Jaracz: Well-
Alison Brown: I mean, we end up with the Soviets with the gold, but now I’m- Yes … so confused.
Jill Jaracz: Because the Canadians got shut out and got nothing, and now the USA is sitting on 26 goals and the Canadians have 23, USA gets silver, Canada gets bronze. It was- Oh
their worst ever finish at, an Olympic hockey tournament. And, it was pretty wild. I mean, to have a final, a game that [00:19:00] does actually become the gold medal game. Right. And, and I couldn’t tell, like, I would not be surprised if they looked at all the, the games and went, “Okay, this is gonna be the deciding one.
You’re gonna be at the end, at least.” Right. Rather than just like, “Oh, well, you’re game number seven,” ’cause that’s how the schedule goes. but to lose the gold medal game and not even get the silver.
Alison Brown: Right, because you got shut out. Yes. And the, and the United States did so well against the Czechs.
Jill Jaracz: Yeah.[00:19:30]
Yeah. It was pretty, pretty wild. So that’s where we’re at. Soviet Union, in their first Winter Olympics, takes the gold. They’re gonna go on to dominate men’s hockey.
Alison Brown: Yes. For a long time.
What happened in Olympic ice hockey after Cortina 1956
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And with the exception of 1960 and 1980 when the USA won, the Soviets would win every other gold medal until the country broke apart.
And even in 1992, the unified team won gold.
Alison Brown: Yeah. It’s hard to imagine now [00:20:00] how dominant the Soviet hockey team was.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: You know, it’s hard to remember how incredible that machine was, that it just won game after game after game after game, and never looked tired and never looked stressed, and just would roll over such quality players.
Right. And it didn’t matter
Jill Jaracz: Canada won silver in 1960, and they got another bronze in [00:20:30] 1968. Otherwise, they were off the podium until 1992 when they took silver. And they would not win another gold medal in 2000– until 2002
Alison Brown: Which is heartbreaking for that country.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: Every time Canada loses, even though the United States swept this year, and that was so exciting to have them win all three, uh- Yes
hockey medals, have Canada get silver in every single one of those was so heartbreaking to watch because you know there’s no other [00:21:00] medal that they want more than that hockey gold medal. They would trade every other medal in the entire Olympic and Paralympic sphere for that hockey gold medal, especially in the men’s.
Jill Jaracz: Right. Right. And then, of course, the US has the Miracle on Ice in 1980, but they also would not win another ice hockey gold medal until 2026.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: So when you think, uh, just the finals as a round robin tournament is so-
Alison Brown: [00:21:30] Who thought that was a good idea? And it’s all of the tournaments are like this. You know, when, whenever- Yes
we cover the old summer games, so many round robin. Like, how did we not get the idea that having a gold medal game was the way to go?
Jill Jaracz: I don’t know, man, because– And I don’t think it was appealing. Like, early on, and there was an issue with attendance at the hockey tournament.
Mm. As our friend, technical delegate, J.F. Ahern, did note in the official report. He [00:22:00] was very upset about that, particularly final, for the final game, and he noted that the best seats in the arena tended to be empty, and called that out in the official report. And then there is an editor’s note, that, you know, it’s good when the editor has to chime in here, that says, “Yeah, those best seats, those were for the IOC family and the international federations and the National Olympic Committees, et cetera.”
So [00:22:30] even back then, they were having problems with the Olympic family not going to stuff.
Alison Brown: Yeah. We’ve seen that in Paris and in Milan, where we see the empty seats right down in front.
Jill Jaracz: Right.
Alison Brown: And it- With the big O and the pink, the pink banners on them.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. And then, of course, spectators are furious because they want tickets, and I’m sure the organizers don’t love it because they could have sold those seats.
Alison Brown: Absolutely.
Jill Jaracz: For a good penny. So Ahern recommended that [00:23:00] if the seats weren’t going to be filled, the tickets should have been given to the children of Cortina and, quote, “If necessary, their parents.”
Alison Brown: Well, didn’t we love when we were in Cortina and at the curling where the schools would show up?
Jill Jaracz: Yes, and, and
Alison Brown: they- That was so special … were at the alpine skiing too. Yes. Yeah, that was so special to have those groups of kids, and the kids would get so excited, and they’d make banners and signs, and they would cheer, and [00:23:30] th- they were the loudest in the entire arena, which is the best.
I mean, you do want those kids there because number one, that’s how you make new fans.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And two, that’s how you juice up the environment.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. They get so excited. And, and at Cortina, there was this little girl in the alpine skiing venue who was just a pin hustler.
Alison Brown: And- Yes, I remember your pin hustler …
Jill Jaracz: I was like, I just loved her.
She was fantastic. So yes, bring the kids in. [00:24:00] So-
Alison Brown: Herne had the right idea.
Jill Jaracz: Yes. even though that they made sure that last game had a lot of stakes in it, tournament had a potential to be very anticlimactic. didn’t seem to bother the IIHF, the Hockey Federation, because that finals round-robin format continued to be the Olympic tournament structure until, can you guess when?
Alison Brown: Don’t tell me 1980
Jill Jaracz: Oh, no. 1992, Albertville was the very first [00:24:30] tour- uh, Olympic tournament to have a single elimination format after the group stage.
Alison Brown: Wow.
Jill Jaracz: that blew my mind away, that it took them that long to change.
Alison Brown: Well, doesn’t it always?
Jill Jaracz: Yes. It does, it does.
Alison Brown: Turning the Titanic with these federations.
Sources
Jill Jaracz: Huh. Well, sources, we have Hockey Canada, Bruce Arthur writing for the Toronto Star, Roger Deer writing for USA Hockey, Jason Dunich writing for the SO Star, [00:25:00] uh, Alex Flood for CBC News, Brayden Halmyard for Toronto Star, Olympia, multiple pages there, Douglas MacLean writing for the Huntsville Doppler, because they did dig up a lot of, Canadians who had played for Italy in this, tournament.
Yes. So, uh, for 2026, they did find there were, were six, so they found at least three or four of them.
Alison Brown: Oh, nice.
Jill Jaracz: A couple, a couple have passed away. [00:25:30] Somebody’s working, been working on a documentary about them, and there’s one that nobody mentioned. But he’s got an interesting story, which I will share with you in our newsletter.
So if you don’t get that, get Substack, flameandlifepod.substack.com.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: Thank you. also back to the sources, Silvia Ponticorvi writing for Omni News. And of course, the official report of Cortina d’Ampezzo 1956.
Alison Brown: You’re gonna [00:26:00] bound that in gold by the time you’re done with this year of stories.
Because that thing has just been such a good… You know, most of the reports are very dry.
Jill Jaracz: Yes.
Alison Brown: And, and don’t have a lot of this, this flavor and specifics. They do tend to be very superficial. This one, on the other hand, is so Italian and gets into all the nitty-gritty and all the, the details and stories.
Yes. And editor’s notes and-
Jill Jaracz: [00:26:30] Yes. And you know what else is a good read is the LA ’84 official report. Mm. Which was written by our friend Rich Perelman.
Alison Brown: Oh, really?
Jill Jaracz: And he is very forthright in what went well, what did not go well, because, and we talked about it one time, and he said, “Yeah, I did it that way because we didn’t have the same knowledge sharing that they do now.”
So now reports get really bland because all of the interesting stuff behind the scenes that y- [00:27:00] we wanna know, they s- they keep it behind closed doors and just share with people as committees, like, come and visit. So that’s not as fun for us.
Alison Brown: No.
Jill Jaracz: It’s glowing for the IOC, it’s glowing for whatever, but it’s not so fun for us.
Alison Brown: Yes.
Jill Jaracz: But-
Alison Brown: Well, I’m looking forward to the newsletter.
Jill Jaracz: Excellent. Excellent. So that will do it for this week, and, uh, thank you so much for listening.
Alison Brown: And until next time, keep the flame alive.[00:27:30]