Hockey fever, which gripped Slovakia eight years ago, is returning to the country. The 2011 Ice Hockey Championship was the biggest sporting event in the history of Slovakia. There is no doubt that millions of fans all over the world will again be interested in the Ice Hockey World Championship in Bratislava and Košice, which takes place between the 10th and 26th May 2019.
Sixteen teams will play a total of 64 games at the championship. The home team will play their preliminary round games in Košice against teams from Canada, USA, Finland, Germany, Denmark, France, and Great Britain. The defending champions from Sweden, who are seeking to be champions for the third time, will play their preliminary round games in Bratislava against teams from the Czech Republic, Russia, Switzerland, Norway, Latvia, Austria, and Italy.
More than 400,000 fans are expected to attend the games at the 2019 IIHF World Championship. It has been estimated that the television broadcasts will be watched by more than a billion viewers. The television broadcast of the championship eight years ago was watched by people in 114 countries; this time the championship will be televised in 166 countries and they will broadcast a total of 8,357 hours from Slovakia.
Macejko is the mascot of this, the top hockey event of the year. The name for the bear, with a shepherd’s belt and hat, was the result of a vote by fans on Facebook. His official song has an apt name “The Hockey Song”. “My home is in Slovakia, I seek to play for Slovakia. There, on a high rock, there, in a deep valley, the hearts beat for hockey,” start the lyrics of his song. A commemorative coin and, of course, also a postage stamp, have been issued to celebrate the occasion of the Ice Hockey World Championship.
The representatives of Slovak Ice Hockey already know what it feels like to win medals at world championships. They won silver at Saint Petersburg, Russia, in 2000; two years later in Gothenburg, Sweden, they climbed to the top of hockey’s Mount Olympus and won the gold; and in 2003, they completed their medal collection, when they won bronze at Helsinki, Finland. Another silver medal brought joy at Helsinki in 2012.
We all hope that the success of the championships, again held here at home, will reward the efforts of the organisers, representatives, and will again warm the hearts of the hockey family.

SPR media, s.r.o