The IIHF European Junior Championships were an annual
ice hockey
Ice hockey (or simply hockey) is a team sport played on ice skates, usually on an ice skating rink with lines and markings specific to the sport. It belongs to a family of sports called hockey. In ice hockey, two opposing teams use ice hock ...
tournament organized by the
International Ice Hockey Federation
The International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF; french: Fédération internationale de hockey sur glace; german: Internationale Eishockey-Föderation) is a worldwide governing body for ice hockey. It is based in Zurich, Switzerland, and has 83 m ...
and held from 1968 to 1998, with an unofficial tournament being held in 1967.
[Dupalcey page 528] The tournament was played as a U19 tournament from 1968 to 1976. In 1977, the IIHF created the
IIHF World Junior Championships
The IIHF World Junior Championship (WJC), or simply the "World Juniors" in ice hockey circles, is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF) for national under-20 ice hockey teams from around the world. It is t ...
, and the U19 championships became U18. The tournament was dominated by the Russians (and Soviets), Czechs (and Czechoslovaks), Swedes and Finns, winning all but two of the medals in the 31 years it was held.
The U18 Championships remained strong until 1999, when the new
IIHF World U18 Championships
The IIHF U18 World Championship is an annual event organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation for national under-18 ice hockey teams from around the world. The tournament is usually played in April and is organized according to a sy ...
were introduced, thus rendering the U18 European Championships redundant. Two European Divisions continued until 2000, but were tiered qualifiers, alongside
Asian Divisions, with promotion and relegation to the World Group B.
Champions
U19
U18
Medal table
European Division I (Qualifier for World Group B)
Overall participation totals
Over the history of the tournament there were 31 'A', 30 'B', 21 'C', and 4 'D' championships
In 1976 Group 'A' grew from six members to eight.
*Former nations are italicized and listed separately from nations that continued in their stead.
*In Group A participation totals include withdrawals (or forfeitures) by Bulgaria, Poland and Romania. Likewise Greece's only appearance is listed despite not being official because of forfeit.
References
Year by year complete results with notes and commentary in french at Passionhockey.com* Description of tournament and tabled results up to 1997.
{{IIHF
International Ice Hockey Federation tournaments
International ice hockey competitions for junior teams