France knew they were in Senegal as soon as they arrived on the sand of the centre court at Saly Beach West for their very first pre-match warm-up.

Their opponents? The host nation completely pumped up with 100s of fans making noise, bringing colour and providing support – and that was before the game had even started

The first set went to the home team, but the European side powered back to take the second and move the game into a shoot-out, the epic contest eventually won by Senegal (15:14).

But straight after that, it was time to move on. In competition you cannot afford to think too much about the last game no matter if a win or loss so France came back in the afternoon and delivered, taking a 2-0 win against Kenya.

A night to think about that first day then followed with France then coming back to preliminary group action for their clash against the world championship fifth-placed side Uruguay, the team who had beaten them to that spot at the global event last year.

This time France exploded into action in the first set, winning 29:18 – a points total so huge that up until that point, it was the most scored in a set in the women’s competition at Dakar 2026. However, the South American side fought back, took the second set and then the shoot-out 8:6.

Results and group rankings meant a quarter-final against the impressive People’s Republic of China. And this time, France managed to overcome their shoot-out luck, coming from behind in sets to win the shoot-out 7:2, book a top four finish and earn two attempts at an Olympic Games medal.

“It’s fantastic because we lost every shoot-out in the first part of the competition, and now, in the quarter-finals we won and that's magic – we have many emotions,” said France goalkeeper Nolwenn NOEL, to IHF.info after their quarter-final victory.

“We looked at China a lot on the video to understand their game because they are a good team. In the game, we did the things we could do to stop them and it was perfect. Our defence was good. The goalkeepers did the job and our attack scored many goals, and that's perfect.

“Between the two sets our coach encouraged us a lot because he wants the team to win too,” added the player. “It was only motivation; ‘Girls, you can do it. Girls, you can win’. Then Yvelise (DUBLANC) our defence coach just said; ‘Do what you know you can and you will win’, that was the motivation. In the end, we had more energy than them.”

And no better encouragement is needed for NOEL and her side than the possibility of winning an Olympic Games medal across the next two games.

“They are beautiful players,” says NOEL about her teammates. “We are an ensemble, a collective together. We talk when it's good, we talk when it's not good; we keep talking. The group is perfect because when the defence does their job, the attack do their job too. But when the attack loses the ball, the defence do their job, and when the defence don't do their job, the attack does their job. It's equilibrium between the two; a perfect attack and defence.

“One year ago, we finished fifth at the European championship,” added the player who first played beach handball in 2022. “We wanted to do better here, which we did, as we are now in the semi-finals but our objective is to win the gold medal.”