The past 30 years of Olympic participation

Here's a quick look at how the 12 countries that are in these year's Olympics have fared over the past 30 years at the Games. I included the Soviet Union as Russia but not Czechoslovakia for the Czech Republic and Slovakia:

	Country	1980	1984	1988	1992	1994	1998	2002	2006	2010	Avg
1	Russia	2	1	1	1	4	2	3	4	6	2.7
2	Sweden	3	3	3	5	1	5	5	1	5	3.4
3	Canada	6	4	4	2	2	4	1	7	?	3.8
4	Finland	4	6	2	7	3	3	6	2	?	4.1
5	Czech Rep.					5	1	7	3	7	4.6
6	USA	1	7	7	4	8	6	2	8	?	5.4
7	Belarus					DNQ	7	4	DNQ	9	6.7
8	Slovakia					6	10	13	5	?	8.5
9	Germany				6	7	9	8	10	11	8.5
10	Switzerland	DNQ	DNQ	8	10	DNQ	DNQ	11	6	8	8.6
11	Norway	11	12	12	9	11	DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	10	10.8
12	Latvia				DNQ	DNQ	DNQ	9	12	12	11.0

This year's tournament will go down as the worst finish ever for Russia, who had never placed lower than fourth since first entering Olympic hockey in 1956. Canada's low point, meanwhile, came in Turin four years ago.

The U.S. has a chance to win gold for the first time since the Miracle on Ice, while Finland and Slovakia have never won gold. (The Slovaks have already earned their best-ever finish given the worst they can now do is fourth.)
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