In the first issue of the year, one event stands out: the IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship in Switzerland. This major event to be held in May is already being eagerly anticipated. Swiss Post has dedicated two stamps to the national ice hockey team. The new stamps will be available from all Swiss Post branches and the online shop from 5 March 2020.

Will they make it to the final? Will they pull off a major coup? The IIHF Ice Hockey World Championship, which will be held between 8 and 24 May is particularly important to the Swiss national team this year. Matches will be played in a familiar environment in Zurich and Lausanne, offering the team home advantage – and expectations are high all around the country. These expectations have also spurred the players on, with a series of good performances in recent years. In 2013 and 2018, the team made it to the final, only just missing out on the gold medal. Don’t all good things come in threes? And wouldn’t 2020 be the ideal year for a Swiss sporting achievement, given that the World Championship slogan is “Let’s make history”?

Swiss Post has dedicated two stamps to this major event in its first stamp issue of the year. These illustrate the positive mood around the country and contain a healthy dose of “Swissness”. The Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau can be seen in the background, while the stamp motifs are based heavily on the official World Championship campaign: a star of the national team wearing the red kit is hitting a slapshot, and four players, including the goaltender, are rushing forwards on the pristine ice in full gear. Both pictures provide an impressive illustration of what ice hockey is all about: the quickest team sport in the world – raw, dynamic and full of power.

You can find information on other motifs in the current issue and details on the new stamps in the latest edition of the collector’s magazine “Focus on stamps” or at swisspost.ch/stamps.