IIHF InLine Hockey World Championships
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Most recent season or competition: 2015 IIHF Inline Hockey World Championship |
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| Sport | Inline hockey |
|---|---|
| Founded | 1996 |
| No. of teams | 8 in the Top Division 8 in Division I |
| Most recent champion(s) |
 Canada
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| Most titles |
 United States (6 titles)
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| Official website | IIHF.com |
The IIHF InLine Hockey World Championship is an event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation. The 20th championship was held between 5 July and 11 July 2015 in Tampere, Finland.
The IIHF In-Line Hockey World Championship is one of the youngest IIHF events, but one that has largely grown in importance since its inception in 1996. In-Line Hockey as a sport has grown rapidly since 1996 and now more nations than ever are fielding teams and the World Championship is becoming increasingly more competitive. During the first three years of the IIHF In-Line Hockey World Championship, North American teams dominated the field. The United States and Canada finished in first and second place at each of the first three championships, in which the United States played host to each year.
In 1998, the format of the tournament changed and so, for the first time, did the gold medalist. The tournament was expanded to include two groups, one with the top eight teams in Anaheim, California and the other group, with the next eight nations, hosted in Bratislava, Slovakia. This was one of the earliest signs of In-Line Hockey’s growing popularity around the globe. Canada upset the two-time world champion and hosts, Team USA, for the gold medal. The 2000 World Championship was the first true shift in the standings to Europe’s advantage. Finland finally upgraded its bronze medal and went home with the gold after defeating the hosts, the Czech Republic, in the final game. Team USA closed out the medal winners with a bronze medal. The 2000 World Championship also featured New Zealand and Chile in the world championship mix for the first time. Overall, the 2000 tournament had teams from four continents (North America, South America, Europe and Australia) represented.
In 2001, Finland won the gold medal for the second straight year, edging out the host again, this time, Team USA. The Czech Republic took home a medal for the second straight year, earning the bronze medal and again four continents were represented. In 2002, Sweden emerged from out of nowhere to win its first-ever medal, which proved to be gold. The highest the Swede’s had ever finished in the A Group was fifth and it was just Sweden’s third season in the top Group. That year, Germany gave the fans in Nurnberg something to cheer about, earning its first medal at the In-Line Hockey World Championship, a bronze medal effort.
In 2003, it was Finland squeaking past Sweden in the final game, while Team USA returned to the podium, claiming the bronze medal. In 2010, USA won its fifth championship, first since 2006 and in 2012, Canada won its first championship since 1998. In July 2015 it was announced that the World Championships would be changed from an annual tournament to a biennial tournament. The change means that three qualification tournaments will be held in the even years to earn promotion to Division I, starting in 2016, and the World Championships will be held in the odd years, starting in 2017. The qualification tournaments have been restructured into three regions to lower travel costs with the regions now being Africa/South America, Asia/Oceania, and Europe/North America. In January 2016 the IIHF announced that two of the qualification tournaments had been realigned with North America moving into the Africa/South America tournament to become Americas/Africa, leaving Europe to have its own qualification tournament.
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