Handball, Women

The top four teams of the 1990 World Championships were directly qualified for this event. But they were greatly affected by the political changes after 1990: first-placed USSR was represented by the Unified Team, while war-torn runner-up Yugoslavia was barred from competing due to the United Nations ban. East and West Germany had placed third and fourth respectively, but they now sent a combined team to the Olympics. This meant the teams having placed fifth (Austria) and sixth (Norway) were called up to compete. The other four teams were host nation Spain, Asian champion and defending Olympic champion South Korea, Nigeria (Africa) and the US (Americas).

The Unified Team and Germany easily outplayed their pool opponents and qualified for the semi-finals. In pool B, South Korea soundly beat Norway, but was then held to a draw by Austria (17-17), which featured three former medallists from Yugoslavia and the USSR (Jasna Kolar-Merdan, Natalia Rusnatchenko and Slavica Djukić). As South Korea easily won its final game, the second semi-final spot was decided directly between Norway and Austria. In a tense match, the Norwegian women came out ahead, 19-17.

Both semi-finals were close matches. Germany lost narrowly to the South Koreans (26-25), while Norway beat the Unified Team only in the dying seconds, Siri Eftedal scoring the winning goal with just 3 seconds left on the clock. Compared to these matches, the final was a boring affair. After a brief lead early on, the Norwegians were outplayed by the Koreans, much as in the first pool match. The final score, 28-21 gave Korea its second consecutive gold medal. As the Unified Team defeated Germany, the podium was essentially the same as in 1988.