The IIHF European Junior Championships were held from 1968 to 1998, with an unofficial tournament being held in 1967. The tournament was played as a U19 tournament from 1968-1976. In 1977, the IIHF created the IIHF World Junior Championships, and the U19 championships became U18. The tournament was dominated by the Russians, Czechs, Swedes and Finns, winning all but two of the medals in the thirty-one years it was held.