Sweden men's national handball team facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Sweden
Information
Association	Swedish Handball Association (Svenska Handbollförbundet)
Coach	Michael Apelgren
Assistant coach	Michael Apelgren
Captain	Andreas Palicka
Most caps	Magnus Wislander (386)
Most goals	Magnus Wislander (1191)
Colours
1st 2nd 3rd
Results
Summer Olympics
Appearances	10 (First in 1972)
Best result	2nd (1992, 1996, 2000, 2012)
World Championship
Appearances	26 (First in 1938)
Best result	1st (1954, 1958, 1990, 1999)
European Championship
Appearances	15 (First in 1994)
Best result	1st (1994, 1998, 2000, 2002, 2022)
Last updated on Unknown.

The Sweden men's national handball team (Swedish: Sveriges herrlandslag i handboll) is Sweden's national team in men's handball and is controlled by the Swedish Handball Association. Its most successful periods were under coaches Curt Wadmark (1948–1967) and Bengt Johansson (1988–2004). The team under Bengt Johansson, nicknamed Bengan Boys in Sweden, is regarded as one of the finest national teams in the history of the sport with players like Tomas Svensson, Staffan Olsson, Magnus Wislander and Stefan Lövgren. From 1990 through 2002 the team reached the medal round in every championship (6 World Championships, 5 European Championships and 3 Olympic Games, earning 13 medals in total) and qualified for a record 8 championship finals in a row 1996–2002.

Sweden is the most successful nation at the European Men's Handball Championship with 5 titles, and has won the most medals in the history of the World Men's Handball Championship with a total tally of 12 medals (as of 2023, this is a record shared with France). Conversely, Sweden has yet to win an Olympic title despite participating in 4 finals (Sweden participated in the 1952 Summer Olympics in a demonstration match, defeating Denmark 19–11). The team has also won the World Cup 3 times, the Supercup 2 times, and were Intercontinental Cup winners in 2000.

Honours

Competition	1	2	3	Total
Olympic Games	0	4	0	4
World Championship	4	4	4	12
European Championship	5	1	1	7
Total	9	9	5	23

Competitive record

     Champions       Runners-up       Third place       Fourth place  

Olympic Games

Games	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1936 Berlin	did not enter
Not held from 1948 to 1968
1972 Munich	Match for 7th place	7th of 16	6	2	2	2	82	87	−5
1976 Montreal	did not qualify
1980 Moscow
1984 Los Angeles	Match for 5th place	5th of 12	6	4	0	2	145	134	+11
1988 Seoul	Match for 5th place	5th of 12	6	4	0	2	133	109	+24
1992 Barcelona	Runners-up	2nd of 12	7	6	0	1	165	130	+35
1996 Atlanta	Runners-up	2nd of 12	7	6	0	1	182	141	+41
2000 Sydney	Runners-up	2nd of 12	8	7	0	1	240	197	+43
2004 Athens	did not qualify
2008 Beijing
2012 London	Runners-up	2nd of 12	8	5	0	3	228	186	+42
2016 Rio de Janeiro	Group stage	11th of 12	5	1	0	4	132	131	+1
2020 Tokyo	Quarterfinals	5th of 12	6	4	0	2	177	176	+1
2024 Paris	Quarterfinals	7th of 12	6	3	0	3	189	171	+18
2028 Los Angeles	to be determined
2032 Brisbane
Total	10/17	0 Titles	65	42	2	21	1673	1362	+211

World Championship

World Championship record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1938 Germany	Third place	3rd of 4	3	1	0	2	8	13	−5
1954 Sweden	Champions	1st of 6	3	3	0	0	56	36	+20
1958 East Germany	Champions	1st of 16	6	6	0	0	138	74	+64
1961 West Germany	Third place	3rd of 12	6	5	0	1	89	73	+16
1964 Czechoslovakia	Runners-up	2nd of 16	6	3	0	3	104	90	+14
1967 Sweden	Match for 5th place	5th of 16	6	4	0	2	118	112	+6
1970 France	Match for 5th place	6th of 16	6	3	0	3	69	68	+1
1974 East Germany	Preliminary round	10th of 16	6	3	0	3	111	113	−2
1978 Denmark	Second round	8th of 16	6	2	0	4	121	125	−4
1982 West Germany	Second round	11th of 16	7	2	1	4	159	157	+2
1986 Switzerland	Fourth place	4th of 16	7	5	0	2	174	153	+21
1990 Czechoslovakia	Champions	1st of 16	7	6	0	1	177	143	+34
1993 Sweden	Third place	3rd of 16	7	6	0	1	166	136	+30
1995 Iceland	Third place	3rd of 24	9	8	0	1	251	201	+50
1997 Japan	Runners-up	2nd of 24	9	7	0	2	253	187	+66
1999 Egypt	Champions	1st of 24	9	8	1	0	282	202	+80
2001 France	Runners-up	2nd of 24	9	8	0	1	263	207	+56
2003 Portugal	Second round	13th of 24	7	5	0	2	204	191	+13
2005 Tunisia	Main round	11th of 24	9	4	1	4	275	234	+41
2007 Germany	did not qualify
2009 Croatia	Main round	7th of 24	9	6	0	3	277	232	+45
2011 Sweden	Fourth place	4th of 24	10	6	0	4	272	241	+31
2013 Spain	did not qualify
2015 Qatar	Round of 16	10th of 24	6	3	1	2	157	133	+24
2017 France	Quarter-finals	6th of 24	7	5	0	2	233	166	+67
2019 Denmark/Germany	Main round	5th of 24	9	7	0	2	273	222	+51
2021 Egypt	Runners-up	2nd of 32	9	6	2	1	276	218	+58
2023 Poland/Sweden	Fourth place	4th of 32	9	7	0	2	299	237	+62
2025 Croatia/Denmark/Norway	Qualified
2027 Germany	To be determined
2029 France/Germany
// 2031 Denmark/Iceland/Norway
Total	27/32	4 Titles	187	129	6	52	4803	3964	+839

European Championship

European Championship record
Year	Round	Position	Pld	W	D	L	GF	GA	GD
1994 Portugal	Champions	1st of 12	7	7	0	0	172	133	+39
1996 Spain	Fourth place	4th of 12	7	4	0	3	170	156	+14
1998 Italy	Champions	1st of 12	7	6	0	1	182	158	+24
2000 Croatia	Champions	1st of 12	7	7	0	0	198	167	+31
2002 Sweden	Champions	1st of 16	8	7	0	1	235	191	+44
2004 Slovenia	Main round	7th of 16	7	4	0	3	211	203	+8
2006 Switzerland	did not qualify
2008 Norway	Match for 5th place	5th of 16	7	4	1	2	208	190	+18
2010 Austria	Preliminary round	15th of 16	3	0	0	3	78	84	−6
2012 Serbia	Main round	12th of 16	6	1	2	3	157	168	−11
2014 Denmark	Main round	7th of 16	6	4	0	2	166	158	+8
2016 Poland	Match for 7th place	8th of 16	7	2	2	3	173	168	+5
2018 Croatia	Runners-up	2nd of 16	8	4	0	4	218	216	+2
2020 Austria/Norway/Sweden	Main round	7th of 24	7	4	0	3	182	169	+13
2022 Hungary/Slovakia	Champions	1st of 24	9	7	1	1	252	221	+31
2024 Germany	Third place	3rd of 24	9	6	0	3	282	255	+27
2026 Denmark/Norway/Sweden	Qualified as co-host
2028 Portugal/Spain/Switzerland	To be determined
Total	15/16	5 titles	105	67	6	32	2884	2637	+247

*Denotes draws include knockout matches decided on penalty throws.

**Gold background color indicates that the tournament was won. Red border color indicates tournament was held on home soil.

Team

Current squad

Roster for the 2024 Summer Olympics. Handball at the 2024 Summer Olympics – Men's team rosters

Notable players

• Per Carlén
• Björn "Lurch" Andersson
• Bengt Johansson
• Stefan Lövgren
• Mats Olsson
• Staffan Olsson
• Magnus Wislander
• Ljubomir Vranjes
• Pierre Thorsson
• Magnus Andersson
• Ola Lindgren
• Erik Hajas
• Johan Petersson
• Peter Gentzel
• Tomas Svensson
• Kim Andersson
• Martin Frändesjö
• Jim Gottfridsson
• Niclas Ekberg

Coaches

World & European Records

World Records

• Longest undefeated streak in international championships (25 matches, Euro 1998 - 2000 Olympic Games).
• Longest medal round streak in major championships (14 tournaments, 1990-2002).
• Longest medal round streak in the World Championships (7 tournaments, 1986-2001).
• 8 consecutive finals in international championships (1996-2002).
• Most World Championship finals (8 - shared with France).
• 3 consecutive World Championship finals (1997, 1999, 2001 - shared with Denmark).

European Records

• Most finals reached in international championships (18).
• Most medals in international competition (23 - shared with France).
• 3 consecutive gold medals at the European championship (1998, 2000, 2002).

Other merits

• First European nation to win a major championship title three times in a row (Euro 1998, Euro 2000, Euro 2002).
• 3 x winners of the World Cup (1992, 1996, 2004)
• 2 x winners of the Supercup (1993, 2005)
• 1 x winners of the Intercontinental Cup (2000)
• The first IHF World Champion (1954 - indoor handball) (Germany's 1938 victory was under the IAHF).
• The first EHF European Champion (1994).
• Defeated Denmark 18-12 in Copenhagen in the first ever international indoor handball game (8 March 1935).

Kit supplier

From 2004 to 2015 Sweden's kits were supplied by Adidas, and 2016-2019 by Kempa. The current supplier is Craft.

See also

In Spanish: Selección de balonmano de Suecia para niños

• Sweden women's national handball team