Handball at the 2024 Summer Olympics

The handball tournaments at Paris 2024 were held at two venues, with the preliminary rounds taking place in the Paris area, at Paris Expo Porte de Versailles (South Paris Arena 6), before moving north to Lille, where the quarterfinal, semifinal and medal rounds were held at Pierre Mauroy Stadium. Twelve countries qualified for both the men’s and women’s tournaments, six through qualification tournaments held in the preceding months and five through continental championships/qualification tournaments, in addition to the host country, France.

Both tournaments proved to be extremely competitive, with both emerging star players and experienced international veterans aiming for Olympic glory for their countries. The host nation, France, was the defending gold medalist from Tokyo 2020 in both the men’s and women’s tournaments, but unfortunately fell short of defending their title on home soil, as the men dropped a quarter-final match to Germany in dramatic fashion, and the women were upset by Norway in the gold medal match. The men’s tournament saw Denmark, one of the other favorites and defending World Champions, win their first Olympic gold since Rio 2016, while Germany took silver. The bronze medals were taken by Spain (men’s) and Denmark (women’s), who emerged victorious over Slovenia and Sweden in their matches.