100 Years of the First Ice Hockey European Championship in Slovakia

In the foreground, an ice hockey player in dynamic motion with stick raised. Behind him stretches a forest and mountain panorama of the Tatra. Along the upper edge, the commemorative inscription 'MAJSTROVSTVÁ EURÓPY V HOKEJI', below it the years '1925 – 2025', and beneath the design the issuing state 'SLOVENSKO'.

Ice hockey is one of the most popular sports in Slovakia, and this has historical roots: as early as 1925, the territory of present-day Slovakia hosted the Ice Hockey European Championship — the first international sporting event on Slovak soil. The event took place during the era of the First Czechoslovak Republic and marked the region's early connection to the emerging sport of European ice hockey. The venue was Štrbské Pleso in the High Tatras, a resort town already known at the time as a winter sports destination, establishing Slovakia's high mountains as a sporting stage.

Slovak ice hockey has developed continuously ever since: after the founding of independent Slovakia in 1993, the country built up its own national team, which won bronze at the 2002 Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, drawing international attention. Slovakia has produced several world-class players — including Zdeno Chára and Marián Hossa — and is regarded as an established force in international ice hockey. To mark the 100th anniversary of the 1925 Ice Hockey European Championship, Slovakia honours this milestone in sports history with a 2-euro commemorative coin in 2025.