Canada's hockey team at the 1964 Winter Olympics has been denied a bronze medal for a second time.
The CBC reported yesterday that the International Ice Hockey Federation has ruled against reversing the 1964 decision that awarded the bronze medal for the world championship to the former Czechoslovakia instead of Canada.
In 1964, the Olympic hockey tournament was also considered the world championship and the European championship for that year. Canada and Czechoslovakia finished tied for third place.
Under Olympic tiebreaking rules, which took goal differential for the entire tournament, Czechoslovakia placed third and got the bronze medal.
But under world championship rules, only goals from the medal round counted, which should have given Canada the bronze. But a dispute over rules erupted and the Canadian players never got their medals.
The IIHF had admitted a mix-up occurred and voted unanimously in late April to award the medal to Canada. But the CBC reported that minutes from an IIHF meeting held days after the 1964 Olympics finished states that the bronze medals for the Olympics and the world championship were presented to the Czechoslovak captain, and that Canada was not owed any medals.
Murray Costello, a Canadian member of the IIHF council, voted last week against reversing the IIHF's original decision.
"If we do that, there's any number of decisions along the way that could be questioned," Costello told the CBC.
"We'd open a Pandora's box that would lead right up to the present-day council and the decisions that they're making."
Hockey Canada president Bob Nicholson said he is not through trying to get the medal he feels rightfully belongs to Canada's 1964 team.
"We'll do everything we can in Hockey Canada's power to get this medal for the players," he said.