Austria

Austria is a country in central Europe with a population of about 8,000,000.

Organisation
The Austrian men's national hockey team is the national ice hockey team for Austria. The team is controlled by Österreichischer Eishockeyverband. As of 2008 the Austrian team is ranked 16th in the IIHF World Rankings. Austria has not won a medal in a major tournament since 1947, and has not broken 10th place since 1994. Austria currently has 8,799 registered players (0.1% of the total population). Their head coach is Bill Gilligan.

Austria's first artificial ice rink was opened in Vienna in 1909. Three years later, Austria won European Championships bronze but the tournament was later annulled because the country was not a member of the international federation.

In its first international game, Austria lost 0-5 to Bohemia. The Austrian Ice Hockey Federation was created in 1912 and Austria joined the International Ice Hockey Federation same year.

In the last decades Austria has played in the lower pools of World Championships. However, in 2004 it competed for the first time in a long while in Pool A finishing 11th.

Leagues
Women's
 * Österreichische Staatsmeisterschaft
 * Damen Eishockey Bundesliga

Some great Austrian players

 * 🇦🇹 Thomas Vanek
 * Thomas Pock
 * Andreas Nodl
 * Michael Grabner
 * Reinhard Divis

National Teams

 * Austria men's national ice hockey team
 * Austria men's national junior ice hockey team
 * Austria men's national U-18 ice hockey team
 * Austria women's national ice hockey team
 * Austria women's national U-18 ice hockey team