Hosts the teams to beat at Paris 2024

An overall of 18 European teams have qualified for Paris, with nine each in the men’s and the women’s competitions. For the first time ever, handball even starts before the Opening Ceremony on Friday, as the women’s competition will throw off on Thursday. The reason for this is the change of venues after the preliminary round: The first part of the competition will be played at the South Paris Arena 6 in the Paris Expo Centre.

After 10 days of competition, the 16 teams qualified for the quarter-finals will move to the football arena, Pierre Mauroy Stadium, in Lille, which hosted matches during the 2017 Men’s World Championship. Because of this transition, there is a travel day on August 5, before the knockout stage starts on August 6.

The European dominance in the Olympic Games is underlined by the fact that the bronze medal won by the South Korea women at Beijing 2008 was the last non-European medal in the Olympic handball tournaments. In the men’s competition, the one and only of an overall of 42 medals awarded at the Games was a silver taken by the South Korea men in Seoul in 1988, although Egypt – featuring a number of current European cup players – made it to the Tokyo 2020 semi-finals.

Men’s competition

The France men were part of all four Olympic finals since 2008, when they won gold for the first time, beating Iceland in the final. In 2012, France defended their title by beating Sweden in London. At Rio 2016 and in Tokyo in 2021, the final was Denmark versus France. First, the Scandinavians grabbed gold, which was Denmark’s first for the men. In Tokyo, France turned the tables and won the title.

Denmark and France will meet on match day one, on July 27, in a rematch of the EHF EURO 2024 final won by France. In 2023, the sides locked horns in the final of the World Championship in Stockholm, when Denmark completed their hattrick, taking the trophy for the third consecutive time.

From both sides, a legendary player will say farewell in Paris: Nikola Karabatic (France) and Mikkel Hansen (Denmark). And many hope that they clash in the final on August 11. Karabatic is the first handball player to be part of six Olympic Games. If France secure the title, he will be the first handball player ever to win four gold medals at the Olympic Games. France coach Guillaume Gille is the only person in men’s handball who has won European, world and Olympic gold medals as a player and a coach.

Besides those top contenders, seven more European teams have qualified for the men’s competition, including the two EHF EURO 2024 semi-finalists Sweden (bronze) and Germany (fourth). They will duel on day one in a rematch of the 3/4 placement game in Cologne. Their preliminary round group is completed by two-time EHF EURO champions Spain, two-time Olympic champions Croatia, Slovenia and, as the only non-European team, Japan. This constellation means that new Croatia coach Dagur Sigurdsson will face his two former national teams: Japan and Germany. 

Group B features Denmark, France, Norway and Hungary as the European sides, plus the dark horse of Egypt, the only non-European semi-finalists at Tokyo 2020. The sixth team in group B are Pan American Games champions Argentina. All 12 teams in the men’s competition count on players from European clubs.

Women’s competition

In the women’s competition, three European sides are the main contenders for gold: Record European champions Norway, current world and Olympic champions France and three-time Olympic champions Denmark. All three were semi-finalists at the EHF EURO 2022 in Ljubljana, where Norway celebrated the title, Denmark were silver medallists and France placed fourth.

The three sides were also the medallists at the 2023 World Championship, won by France, with Norway the runners-up and Denmark taking bronze on home ground in Herning. Denmark once had a stronghold on the Olympic title, winning three in a row from 1996 to 2004. Since winning the last gold medal in 2004, the Danish side have only qualified for one more Olympics before now and did not take any medals.  

France were part of the last two Olympic finals, losing against Russia at Rio 2016 and beating the same opponents at Tokyo 2020. In both competitions, Norway won the bronze medal. France and Norway have never clashed in the Olympic final, as the Norwegians won their gold medals by beating Russia in 2008 and Montenegro in 2012.

The women’s tournament will also see a major farewell: After winning the EHF Champions League with Györ in her last match on a club level, EHF FINAL4 2024 MVP Stine Oftedal will finish her career following the Olympic Games.

Norway and Denmark will duel in preliminary round group B, where they will also face Germany, Sweden and Slovenia. Slovenia will make their debut under the five Olympic rings after they beat Montenegro in the crucial qualification match. In group A, France will face three more European opponents – the Netherlands, Hungary and Spain – and the continental champions Angola and Brazil.

From each preliminary round group, the four top-ranked teams will clinch their berth for the quarter-finals in Lille.

Photos: © kolektiff images