Handball, Men

The men’s handball tournament at Paris 2024 saw a mix of the top up-and-coming players start to assert themselves on the international stage, as well as several other consistent top players of the last two decades nearing the end of their international careers. In the men’s tournament, the defending world champions, Denmark, were led by emerging star Mathias Gidsel and Mikkel Hansen, while the 2023 World Champion runners-up were the French, playing on home soil and led by mainstay Nikola Karabatic. Karabatic and Hansen, along with Croatia’s Domagoj Duvnjak, all mainstays on the international stage for the last two decades and considered widely among the greatest male handball players of all-time, were all playing in their final Olympic Games.

The men’s tournament qualifying rounds saw Germany, Slovenia, Spain, and Sweden emerge in Group A, and Denmark, Egypt, Norway and France in Group B. The quarterfinal round saw the host country, France, upset in a dramatic fashion by the Germans, who were trailing in their match until tying the game in the final second, and then proceeded to win in overtime by a score of 35-34. The defending World Champions, Denmark, almost suffered the same fate at the hands of the Swedish, also winning by a single point margin (31-30). The other two countries to advance to the semifinals were Slovenia and Spain. Slovenia proved to be another tough match for Denmark, who emerged victorious in another close match (31-30), while Spain was defeated by a single-point margin to Germany, with a final score of 25-24.

In the medal rounds, the Danish, led by Gidsel, the leading scorer and eventual most valuable player of the tournament, defeated Germany comfortably by a score of 39-25, while the bronze medal match had a much closer score of 23-22, with Spain winning over Slovenia. This was Denmark’s second Olympic gold, in addition to Rio 2016, and Spain’s second consecutive and fifth overall bronze medal. Slovenia’s fourth place finish was nonetheless the best-ever Olympic result since 2000, and Germany’s silver medal was its best result since Athens 2004.