The second matchday of the preliminary round of the women’s competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games will be played on Sunday, when all the 12 teams will take the court in the South Paris Arena 6.

In group A, the Republic of Korea, Sweden and Denmark will aim for their second win in a row, while in Group B, it is Brazil and France which can secure their second consecutive win. Undoubtedly, the big focus will be the match between Denmark and Norway, a battle of the Scandinavian powerhouses which won five Olympic titles between them. 

GROUP A

• 11:00 CEST Republic of Korea vs Slovenia
• 14:00 CEST Sweden vs Germany
• 16:00 CEST Denmark vs Norway

GROUP B

• 09:00 CEST Brazil vs Hungary
• 19:00 CEST Angola vs Spain
• 21:00 CEST France vs Netherlands

A rematch of the semi-final of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship and the EHF EURO 2022 final: Denmark and Norway have five gold medals at the Olympic Games between them, being two of the powerhouses of the women’s handball in the competition. In their last meeting, at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, the two sides provided a dramatic match, with Norway eventually taking a 29:28 win, after extra-time, in a match where Henny Reistad cemented her case for the 2023 IHF World Female Player of the Year title, with 15 goals. This time around, Reistad is still recovering after an ankle injury and missed the first match at Paris 2024.

Will Norway’s Danish contingent prove useful? Nine of Norway’s 16 players who travelled to Paris 2024 are featuring in the Danish league. Five of them – Reistad, Nora Mørk, Marit Jacobsen, Sanna Solberg-Isaksen and Kristine Breistøl – have played at club level fort Team Esbjerg in the last season, exactly the team which was coached by Denmark women’s national team coach, Jesper Jensen, until this summer. All of them know each other well, therefore making this a battle between two teams which cannot bring any shocks to another.

Can France contain the Dutch attack? The Netherlands scored the largest number of goals in the first round, 34, in the women’s competition, with two of their players, right wing Angela Malenstein and left back Estavana Polman scoring eight goals each, being tied with Hungary’s Csenge Kuczora and Sweden’s Nathalie Hagman as the top scorers in the competition. But the Dutch side faces France, a team renowned for their absolutely superb defence, which will prove a tough battle. Win and take a big step towards to quarter-finals. Lose and the Dutch side will be back to square one.

Hosts aim for best start since Beijing 2008: The first and only time when France women’s team opened the Olympic Games with two wins was at Beijing 2008. Since that competition, regardless of the medal won, France have never threw off with two consecutive wins. 16 years ago, it did not help “Les Bleuses”, who lost four of their next six matches to finish only on the fifth place. This time around, France look stronger, more focused and will have the fans on their side.

Sweden vs Germany, episode II: After Germany delivered a 30:27 win in the men's competition on Saturday, the two sides will meet on Sunday in the men's competition, with Germany needing a win in order to avoid a two-match losing streak, after their shocking loss against the Republic of Korea in the opener on Friday. So far, in the last 15 years, Germany lost both matches against Sweden, including a 20:27 loss in the quarter-finals at the 2023 IHF Women's World Championship, when Germany did not score for the first 14 minutes of the match.

Viver to meet his former side: Carlos Viver was Spain women’s national team coach between 2017 and 2021, leading “Las Guerreras” at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games. Just before the start of the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship, Viver left Spain to focus on his club career, and now will come back to haunt his former team, when his current side, Angola, face the European side. Both sides have lost in the first match, with Spain conceding a 18:29 loss against Brazil, while Angola were defeated by the Netherlands, 31:34.​​​​​

Can Slovenia win their first match in history at the Olympic Games? In their debut match at Paris 2024 – and at the Olympics – Slovenia conceded a 19:27 loss against Denmark, which prompted their captain, right back Ana Gros, to say that there is still a gap between them and the best teams in the world. The second match of Slovenia at Paris 2024 will be against the Republic of Korea, the shock winners against Germany in the first round. Slovenia have won both competitive matches between the two sides so far, 42:35 at the 2005 IHF Women’s World Championship and 31:27 back in December 2023, at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023.

Brazil, ready to enter a select club: Only five teams have secured at least 15 wins at the Olympic Games and Brazil can enter that select club with another win on Sunday, when they face Hungary, in the opener of the six-match card in the South Paris Arena 6. The South American side, which delivered the largest win of the first round, 29:18, against Spain, can start the Olympics with two consecutive wins for the third time in history. The previous two times, at London 2012 and Rio 2016, they made the quarter-finals. Three years ago, Brazil beat Hungary at Tokyo 2020, 33:27, but the European side bounced back after that loss and made the quarter-finals, leaving Brazil out of the competition.

Did you ever think about the speed of the shots recorded in women’s handball? Don’t worry, at Paris 2024, every shot is clocked with precision. Currently, the record is set by Slovenia’s line player, Valentina Tina Klemencic, who scored in her team’s loss against Denmark with a shot that had a 120 km/h speed. Two other goals were registered at 119 km/h, scored by Hungary’s Katrin Klujber and France’s Estelle Nze Minko, with six others at 118 km/h.