Handball at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Women's tournament facts for kids
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| Tournament details | |
|---|---|
| Host country |  France |
| Dates | 25 July – 10 August |
| Teams | 12 (from 5 confederations) |
| Venue(s) | South Paris Arena 6 Pierre Mauroy Stadium (in 2 host cities) |
| Final positions | |
| Champions |  Norway (3rd title) |
| Runner-up |  France |
| Third place |  Denmark |
| Fourth place |  Sweden |
| Tournament statistics | |
| Matches | 2010 |
| Goals scored | 2010 (1 per match) |
| Attendance | 344,552 (171 per match) |
| Top scorer(s) | Nathalie Hagman (41 goals) |
| Best player | Katrine Lunde |
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The women's handball tournament at the 2024 Summer Olympics was a big event for women's handball. It was the 13th time this sport was played at the Summer Olympic Games. The games took place from July 25 to August 10, 2024.
The first games were held in Paris at the South Paris Arena 6. The exciting final matches were played in Lille at the Pierre Mauroy Stadium, both in France.
Norway won the gold medal, making it their third Olympic title in women's handball! They beat France in the final. Denmark won the bronze medal by defeating Sweden.
Contents
Tournament Schedule
This section shows how the tournament was planned out day by day. It helps everyone know when the different stages of the competition would happen.
| G | Group stage | ¼ | Quarterfinals | ½ | Semifinals | B | Bronze medal match | F | Gold medal match |
| Thu 25 | Fri 26 | Sat 27 | Sun 28 | Mon 29 | Tue 30 | Wed 31 | Thu 1 | Fri 2 | Sat 3 | Sun 4 | Mon 5 | Tue 6 | Wed 7 | Thu 8 | Fri 9 | Sat 10 | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| G | G | G | G | G | ¼ | ½ | B | F | |||||||||
How Teams Qualified
To play in the Olympics, teams first had to qualify. This means they had to earn their spot by doing well in other big handball competitions before the Olympics.
| Qualification Event | Dates | Host City | Spots | Qualified Team |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Host nation | N/A | N/A | 1 | France |
| 2022 European Championship | 4–20 November 2022 |  Slovenia Macedonia Montenegro |
1 | Denmark |
| 2023 Asian Qualification Tournament | 17–23 August 2023 |  Hiroshima |
1 |  South Korea |
| 2023 African Qualification Tournament | 11–14 October 2023 |  Luanda |
1 | Angola |
| 2023 Pan American Games | 24–29 October 2023 |  Viña del Mar |
1 |  Brazil |
| 2023 World Championship | 29 November – 17 December 2023 |  Denmark Norway Sweden |
1 | Norway |
| 2024 IHF Women's Olympic Qualification Tournaments | 11–14 April 2024 |  Debrecen |
2 | Hungary Sweden |
 Torrevieja |
2 |  Netherlands Spain |
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 Neu-Ulm |
2 | Germany Slovenia |
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| Total | 12 | |||
The Draw
The "draw" is when teams find out which group they will play in during the first part of the tournament. It's like a lottery to make sure the groups are fair. The draw for this tournament happened on April 16, 2024.
Seeding Teams
Before the draw, teams are "seeded." This means the strongest teams are put into different "pots" so they don't all end up in the same group right away. This helps make the competition more balanced and exciting. The seeding was announced on April 14, 2024.
| Pot 1 | Pot 2 | Pot 3 | Pot 4 | Pot 5 | Pot 6 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Norway Hungary |
Netherlands Germany |
Slovenia Spain |
Sweden France |
Denmark Brazil |
Angola South Korea |
Referees
Referees are super important in handball to make sure the game is fair and follows all the rules. These are the referee teams who officiated the matches.
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Team Rosters
A roster is the list of all the players on each team. You can find the full list of players for each country that competed here.
Preliminary Round
The preliminary round is like the first stage of the tournament. Teams are divided into groups, and they play against every other team in their group. The best teams from each group then move on to the next stage.
Group A Standings
This table shows how the teams in Group A performed.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
Group B Standings
This table shows how the teams in Group B performed.
| Pos | Team | Pld | W | D | L | GF | GA | GD | Pts |
|---|
Rules for classification: 1) Points; 2) Head-to-head points; 3) Head-to-head goal difference; 4) Head-to-head goals scored; 5) Goal difference; 6) Goals scored; 7) Draw.
Knockout Stage
After the preliminary round, the top teams moved on to the knockout stage. This means if a team loses a game, they are out of the tournament. It's a very exciting part of the competition!
Tournament Bracket
This bracket shows how the teams played in the knockout stage, from the quarterfinals all the way to the gold medal game.
| Quarterfinals | Semifinals | Gold medal | ||||||||
| 6 August | ||||||||||
| Norway |
32 | |||||||||
| 8 August | ||||||||||
| Brazil |
15 | |||||||||
| Norway |
25 | |||||||||
| 6 August | ||||||||||
| Denmark |
21 | |||||||||
| Denmark |
29 | |||||||||
| 10 August | ||||||||||
| Netherlands |
25 | |||||||||
| Norway |
29 | |||||||||
| 6 August | ||||||||||
| France |
21 | |||||||||
| Hungary |
32 | |||||||||
| 8 August | ||||||||||
| Sweden (ET) |
36 | |||||||||
| Sweden |
28 | |||||||||
| 6 August | ||||||||||
| France (ET) |
31 | Bronze medal | ||||||||
| France |
26 | |||||||||
| 10 August | ||||||||||
| Germany |
23 | |||||||||
| Denmark |
30 | |||||||||
| Sweden |
25 | |||||||||
Final Ranking and Player Statistics
This section shows how all the teams finished in the tournament and highlights some of the best players.
Final RankingThis table shows the final order of all the teams from first to last.
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All-Star TeamThe All-Star Team is a special group of players chosen as the best in each position during the tournament. They are like the dream team!
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Top GoalscorersThese are the players who scored the most goals throughout the entire tournament.
Source: Olympics Paris 2024 goalscorers |
Top GoalkeepersThese goalkeepers made the most saves and had the best save percentages in the tournament.
Source: Olympics Paris 2024 goalkeepers |
Medal Winners
Here are the amazing teams and players who won medals at the women's handball tournament!
| Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Norway
Veronica Kristiansen Head coach: Þórir Hergeirsson |
France
Laura Glauser (GK) Head coach: Olivier Krumbholz |
Denmark
Sandra Toft (c) (GK) Head coach: Jesper Jensen |
