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Players of the National Hockey League (NHL) have participated in the Winter Olympic Games ice hockey tournaments since 1998.

Background
The first Olympic ice hockey tournament took place at the 1920 Summer Olympics in Antwerp, Belgium. At the time, organised international ice hockey was still relatively new. The Olympic Games were originally intended for amateur athletes, so the players of the National Hockey League (NHL) and other professional leagues were not allowed to play. Pierre de Coubertin, founder of the International Olympic Committee (IOC), was influenced by the ethos of the aristocracy as exemplified in the English public schools. The public schools subscribed to the belief that sport formed an important part of education and there was a prevailing concept of fairness, in which practicing or training was considered tantamount to cheating. Those who practiced a sport professionally were considered to have an unfair advantage over those who practiced it merely as a hobby. As class structure evolved through the 20th century, the definition of the amateur athlete as an aristocratic gentleman became outdated. The advent of the state-sponsored "full-time amateur athlete" of the Eastern Bloc countries further eroded the ideology of the pure amateur, as it put the self-financed amateurs of the Western countries at a disadvantage. Nevertheless, the IOC held to the traditional rules regarding amateurism. The exclusion of professionals caused several controversies throughout the history of the modern Olympics. Professional players were also not allowed to participate in the Ice Hockey World Championships organized by the International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF).

The Soviet Union entered teams of athletes who were all nominally students, soldiers, or working in a profession, but many of whom were in reality paid by the state to train on a full time basis. Because of the Soviet team's full-time athletes and the constant improvement of other European teams, the Canadian Amateur Hockey Association (CAHA) felt their amateur players could no longer be competitive. They pushed for the ability to use players from professional leagues but met opposition from the IIHF and IOC. Avery Brundage, president of the IOC from 1952 to 1972, was opposed to the idea of amateur and professional players competing together. At the IIHF Congress in 1969, the IIHF decided to allow Canada to use nine non-NHL professional hockey players at the 1970 World Championships to be played in Montreal and Winnipeg, Canada. However, the decision was reversed in January 1970 after Brundage said that ice hockey's status as an Olympic sport would be in jeopardy if the change was made. In response, Canada withdrew from international ice hockey competition and Canadian Minister of Health and Welfare John Munro stated that they would not return until after "open competition" was instituted. Günther Sabetzki became president of the IIHF in 1975 and helped to resolve the dispute with the CAHA. In 1976, the IIHF agreed to allow "open competition" between all players in the World Championships, and moved the competition to later in the season so players not involved in the NHL playoffs could participate. However, NHL players were still not allowed to play in the Olympics, because of both the unwillingness of the NHL to take a break mid-season and the IOC's strict amateur-only policy. The first open World Championship was held in 1977 in Vienna, Austria and saw Canada return with a team largely consisting of active NHL players.

Prior to the 1984 Winter Olympics, there was a dispute over what made a player a professional. The IOC had adopted a rule that made any player that had signed an NHL contract but played less than ten games in the league eligible. However, the United States Olympic Committee maintained that any player contracted with a NHL team was a professional and not eligible to play. The IOC held an emergency meeting that ruled that NHL contracted players were eligible, as long as they had not played in any NHL games. This made one Austrian, two Italian and two Canadian players ineligible. Players who had previously played in other professional leagues&mdash;such as the World Hockey Association&mdash;were allowed to play. Canadian hockey official Alan Eagleson stated that the rule was only applied to the NHL and that professionally contracted players in European leagues were still considered amateur. Murray Costello of the CAHA suggested that a Canadian withdrawal was possible. In 1986, the IOC voted to allow all athletes to compete in Olympic Games starting with 1988, but left it to the individual sport federations to decide if they wanted to allow professionals.

The NHL decided not to allow all players to participate in 1988, 1992 or 1994 because the Winter Olympics typically occur in February, during the NHL regular season schedule. To allow participation, the league would have been forced to take a break in their schedule. In 1992, National Basketball Association (NBA) players participated in the 1992 Summer Olympics. The American team – nicknamed the Dream Team – dominated the tournament and NHL commissioner Gary Bettman (who was an NBA executive in 1992) believes that the "[NBA]'s worldwide awareness grew dramatically." He hoped that NHL participation would "get exposure like the world has never seen for hockey." The typical NBA season is held in the winter and spring, so the Summer Olympics do not conflict with the regular season schedule. Bettman "floated a concept of moving hockey to the Summer Games" but this was rejected because of the Olympic Charter. In March 1995, at a meeting in Geneva, Switzerland, it was agreed that NHL players could play in the Olympics starting with the 1998 Games in Nagano, Japan. The deal was officially announced by the NHL on October 2, 1995. Bettman said "We're doing this to build the game of hockey, pure and simple, we think whatever benefits are recouped, it will end up making this game bigger, stronger and healthier."

1998
The 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan were the first to feature NHL participation. The format of the tournament was adjusted to accommodate the NHL's schedule. On February 7, a preliminary round without NHL players or the "Big Six" teams (Canada, the Czech Republic, Finland, Russia, Sweden and the United States) was held. The NHL included games on the seventh, but then halted play for the next seventeen days to allow participating players time to fly to Japan and have time to recover from fatigue. The tournament format was criticised for not allowing all teams the full use of their NHL players during the entire tournament. The top six teams began play on February 13. Canada, considered a pre-tournament favourite, was upset in the semi-final round by the Czech Republic and then lost the bronze medal game to Finland. Led by goaltender Dominik Hašek, the Czech team would go on to defeat Russia to win their first gold medal in the sport. Following the tournament, NHL commissioner Gary Bettman commented that it "was what we had predicted and hoped for from a pure hockey perspective, [it was] a wonderful tournament."

2002
The same tournament format was used at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, United States. The NHL's Olympic break did not start until the second week of the Games. Because the Olympics were in the United States, where the majority of NHL teams are located, teams participating in the preliminary tournament were allowed to use NHL players who were not obligated to play with their NHL club. Slovakia was particularly affected by the inability to use all of its NHL players, and the team failed to advance to the final round. Three months later, Slovakia won gold at the 2002 World Championships. The Canadian team rebounded from a disappointing first round and defeated the American team in the gold medal game.

2006
The 2004–05 NHL season was locked out, and eventually cancelled, because of a labour dispute between the league and the players. In January 2005, Gary Bettman commented that he was hesitant to allow league participation in the 2006 Winter Olympics because he did not like the idea of stopping play mid-season after the previous season had been shut down. The lockout was resolved in July 2005 and the newly negotiated NHL Collective Bargaining Agreement allowed league participation in both the 2006 and 2010 Winter Olympics. The tournament format was adjusted for 2006. The NHL went on break for the duration of the games, allowing all players to compete. The number of teams was lowered to 12 and the top six teams did not get a bye and played five preliminary round games. Sweden won the gold medal over Finland and the Czech Republic won the bronze medal.

Some NHL players used the break as an opportunity to rest and did not participate in the tournament. IIHF president René Fasel stated that he was disappointed by this, adding that "If we want to show our game to the world and make this promotion for hockey, for the game, for the NHL, for the IIHF, for the teams, this is the best place in the world." Some NHL team owners were against their players participating in the tournament due to concerns of NHLers getting injured or exhausted. Philadelphia Flyers owner Ed Snider commented that "I'm a believer in the Olympics and I think it's good for the NHL to participate, having said that, the people who participate should be the ones who are absolutely healthy." Several players were injured during the Olympics and were forced to miss NHL games. Gary Bettman said that several format changes were being discussed so that the tournament would be "a little easier for everybody."

2010
Both the men's and women's tournament will be held at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, Canada, making it the first time since NHL players were allowed to compete that the Olympics will be held in a city with a NHL team. Twelve teams have qualified for the men's event and will be split into three groups of four teams. The NHL break will begin after February 14 and the tournament will start on February 16. At the NHL's request, the number of preliminary games that will be played was lowered to three.

2014
It has not yet been decided if the NHL will participate in the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia. A deal would have to negotiated between the NHL and NHL Players' Association (NHLPA) in the Collective Bargaining Agreement. The NHL management is hesitant to committ to the tournament; Gary Bettman believes the Olympic break is a "strain on the players, on the schedule and on fans," adding that "the benefits we get tend to be greater when the Olympics are in North America than when they're in distant time zones." The Globe and Mail columnist David Shoalts wrote that "Many NHL owners are also not happy about interrupting the NHL season for the Olympics. They do not feel the league receives enough marketing impact for the break in the schedule and for risking injuries to its players." IIHF president René Fasel wants the NHL participate and vowed that he will "will work day and night to have [NHL players] in Sochi". According to NHLPA executive director Paul Kelly, the players want to return to the Olympics and will fight to include the ability in the next agreement. Kelly also believes that the NHL's strained relationship with the Ice Hockey Federation of Russia and the Kontinental Hockey League (KHL) could effect participation. In a 2009 interview, KHL president Alexander Medvedev claimed that the unwillingness of NHL officials to immediately committ to the Sochi Games was "an instrument of pressure" to force a a transfer agreement between the two leagues.