Hosts France, world champions Denmark, and Men’s EHF EURO 2024 bronze medallists Sweden are the three European nations already guaranteed of their berth at the men’s handball competition of the 2024 Olympics. Argentina, Egypt, and Japan have also booked their trip to Paris, as six of the 12 spots available are currently occupied.
Sweden earned their spot last Sunday at the European championship by beating Germany in the third-place match, as both the finalists France and Denmark had already qualified for the Olympics.
Up to six more European teams can join them when the three qualification tournaments take place on 14-17 March 2024. The top-two teams from each tournament qualify for the Olympics.
Lineup for the Olympic qualification tournaments:
- tournament 1: Spain, Slovenia, Bahrain, Brazil
- tournament 2: Germany, Croatia, Algeria, Austria
- tournament 3: Norway, Hungary, Portugal, Tunisia
The host nation for each tournament will be announced over the next days.
Spain (which finished third), Germany (fifth), Norway (sixth), Hungary (eight), Croatia (ninth), and Slovenia (10th) earned their spots in the Olympic qualification tournaments based on their final ranking at the 2023 IHF Men’s World Championship.
Last year’s world championship also determined the seeding of continents, with Europe as the first-ranked continent receiving two more places for the Olympic qualification tournaments. Those two places went to the best-ranked teams at the EHF EURO 2024 which had not already secured their spot at either the Olympics or the qualification tournaments: Portugal (seventh) and Austria (eighth).
The full Olympic qualification road is explained here.
Men's and women's handball at the Olympics takes place from 25 July until 11 August, with the Pierre Mauroy Stadium in Lille hosting the final phase of both competitions.
photo © 2024 Anze Malovrh / kolektiff
