The Latvian Ice Hockey Federation ( lv, Latvijas Hokeja federācija), commonly abbreviated as LHF is the

governing body A governing body is a group of people that has the authority to exercise governance over an organization or political entity. The most formal is a government, a body whose sole responsibility and authority is to make binding decisions in a taken ge ...

that oversees

ice hockey in Latvia Ice hockey in Latvia is the most popular sport in the country. The first hockey match on Latvian soil took place on February 15, 1909, with two teams facing Union and Strēlnieka Dārzs. However, it took another 20 years to supplant the popular ...

, including the

Latvian Hockey Higher League The Latvian Hockey Higher League ( lv, Latvijas Virslīgas hokeja čempionāts), also known as the Optibet Hockey League ( lv, Optibet hokeja līga) since 2017 due to sponsorship by Optibet, is the top tier league of ice hockey in Latvia currentl ...

, the

Latvia women's national ice hockey team The Latvian women's national ice hockey team represents Latvia at the International Ice Hockey Federation's IIHF Women's World Championship and is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation ( lv, Latvijas Hokeja federācija). In recent years, ...

and the

Latvia men's national ice hockey team The Latvian men's national ice hockey team represents Latvia in international ice hockey. The team is ranked 10th in the world by IIHF as of 2019. The team is controlled by the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation. Their best ever finish at the World C ...

. It was founded in 1931 and was admitted to the

IIHF 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 ...

the same year.

History

The predecessor of the LHF, the Latvian Winter Sport Union (, LZSS) was founded in 1926, although until 1931 it focused on the promotion of

bandy Bandy is a winter sport and ball sport played by two teams wearing ice skates on a large ice surface (either indoors or outdoors) while using sticks to direct a ball into the opposing team's goal. The international governing body for bandy is ...

instead of ice hockey. After the start of the

Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 The Soviet occupation of Latvia in 1940 refers to the military occupation of the Republic of Latvia by the Soviet Union under the provisions of the 1939 Molotov–Ribbentrop Pact with Nazi Germany and its Secret Additional Protocol signed in A ...

, the LZSS was dissolved by

Soviet The Soviet Union,. officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics. (USSR),. was a List of former transcontinental countries#Since 1700, transcontinental country that spanned much of Eurasia from 1922 to 1991. A flagship communist state, ...

authorities, although it was suspended from the IIHF only in 1946. After the restoration of the independence of Latvia, the Latvian Hockey Federation was established in 1991 and re-admitted to the IIHF during its congress in

Prague Prague ( ; cs, Praha ; german: Prag, ; la, Praga) is the capital and largest city in the Czech Republic, and the historical capital of Bohemia. On the Vltava river, Prague is home to about 1.3 million people. The city has a temperate ...

on May 6, 1992. However, the Latvian national men's team was not restored back to the top division and had to play in

Group C Group C was a category of sports car racing introduced by the FIA in 1982 and continuing until 1993, with ''Group A'' for touring cars and ''Group B'' for GTs. It was designed to replace both Group 5 special production cars (closed top touri ...

in its first World Championships since

1939 This year also marks the start of the Second World War, the largest and deadliest conflict in human history. Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 1 ** Third Reich *** Jews are forbidden to ...

. The team returned to the top flight in

1997 File:1997 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: The movie set of ''Titanic'', the highest-grossing movie in history at the time; ''Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone'', is published; Comet Hale-Bopp passes by Earth and becomes one of t ...

. The women's national team played its first game in 1992.

Presidents of the LHF

Vilnis Burtnieks ''Vilnis'' (literary: ''wave'') is the name of several Latvian and Lithuanian-language newspapers: * Vilnis (Riga newspaper), Bolshevik newspaper published from Riga in 1913–1914 * Vilnis (Chicago newspaper), communist newspaper published from ...

(1992–1994) *

Kirovs Lipmans Kirovs Lipmans (born 5 November 1940) is a Latvian business person and former ice hockey executive. He served as president of the Latvian Ice Hockey Federation from 1994 to 1995, and from 1998 to 2016; was a member of the Latvian Olympic Committ ...

(1994–1995, 1998–2016) *

Uģis Magonis Uģis is a Latvian masculine given name and may refer to: *Uģis Brūvelis (born 1971), Latvian race walker *Uģis Lasmanis (born 1967), Latvian rower *Uģis Prauliņš Uģis Prauliņš (born 17 June 1957) is a Latvian composer whose choral ...

(1995–1998) * Aigars Kalvītis (2016–present)

References

External links

*
Latvia
at IIHF.com Ice hockey in Latvia International Ice Hockey Federation members Ice hockey governing bodies in Europe Ice hockey {{Latvia-sport-stub