1953 World Ice Hockey Championships
| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |
 Switzerland
|
| Dates | 7–15 March |
| Teams | 4 |
| Final positions | |
Champions 
|
 Sweden (1st title)
|
Runner-up 
|
 West Germany
|
Third place 
|
Switzerland
|
| Fourth place |
 Italy
|
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches played | 6 |
| Goals scored | 64 (10.67 per match) |
| Attendance | 53,000 (8,833 per match) |
|
← 1952
1954 →
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The 1953 Men's World Ice Hockey Championships were the 20th World Championships and the 31st European Championships in ice hockey. The tournament took place between March 7 and March 15, 1953, in Basel and Zurich, Switzerland. Sweden won their first World Championship title and their seventh European Championship title.
This was the first world championship tournament with only European teams. On January 12, 1953, Canadian Amateur Hockey Association president W.B. George stated Canada would not be sending a team to the 1953 World Championships. George told the press: "Every year we spend $10,000 to send a Canadian hockey team to Europe to play 40 exhibition games. All these games are played to packed houses that only enrich European hockey coffers. In return we are subjected to constant, unnecessary abuse over our Canadian style of play." Also absent were the Soviets, it was hoped that the USSR would participate but they did not, sending observers, including coach Anatoli Tarasov to scout the tournament. It is believed that an injury to their star player Vsevolod Bobrov was the reason behind the decision.
Czechoslovakia withdrew from the tournament when it became obvious that their President, Klement Gottwald, was going to die from pneumonia he contracted at Stalin's funeral. General František Janda, the Chairman of the State Committee for the Physical Education and Sport ordered the team home, and Gottwald died the next day, March 14, 1953. The team was disqualified, their results annulled and their remaining games cancelled.
Also participating was a Swiss 'B' team who (if their games counted) would have finished third.
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