The USA made it through to China 2024 after winning the third edition of the North America and the Caribbean Handball Confederation (NACHC) Women’s Beach Handball Championship held in Puerto Rico in April. 

Despite losing to the host nation in the preliminary group stage, 1-2 (17:6, 15:16, SO 8:9), wins against Trinidad and Tobago, Canada and Mexico were enough to see the US through to the final, where they would face the hosts again, but this time it was a one-sided affair, with the Americans taking a 2-0 (26:10, 20:16) victory for gold.

Back in 2018, following a heartbreaking failure on home sand at Oceanside, the USA women’s team were in tears as their dream of travelling to Kazan for the 2018 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship – in what would be their debut – falls short.

However, a few months later the IHF confirms that the IHF Beach Handball Working Group has proposed that the IHF Executive Committee awards a wild card to the USA for Kazan in view of the then upcoming ANOC World Beach Games 2019 and The World Games 2021 – both of which were set to be hosted by the USA.

In the end, the World Beach Games moved to Qatar and The World Games moved back a year due to the covid global pandemic, but the USA were at both competitions.

At Qatar 2019 they finished 10th out of 12 teams, losing to Brazil, Argentina, Denmark and Hungary, but beating Tunisia, while at The World Games in Alabama on home sand, they finished in a heartbreaking fourth spot after losing 0-2 to Argentina in the medal match. 

They had earlier lost their semi-final to eventual winners, Germany, 0-2 which had followed 0-2 losses against Norway, Argentina and Germany in the round-robin preliminary stage and two, 2-0 wins, against Australia and Mexico.

In-between the two global events, the USA equalled their 2018 world championship ranking of 14th at Greece 2022.

On the Heraklion sand, they won their winner-take-all preliminary group match against Vietnam, via shoot-out (8:7) to take the third main round qualification spot from their group behind Denmark and Spain, who they had lost to both, 0-2.

All three matches ended in losses in the main round (Greece, Thailand and Portugal), plus their 9-16 placement round match against Hungary (0-2), but in the 13-16 placement round their pair of clashes were close, as they won their opener against Australia (2-1), but lost to Vietnam (1-2) to finish 14th once more. 

A clear highlight in Greece was Christine Mansour being named as part of the world championship All-star Team thanks to being the top goalscorer, well-ahead on top with 164 points from nine games – exactly 82 spinshot goals.

Mansour has been one of the most high-profile, hardest-working proponents of US Beach Handball on a global scale. 

This has best been evidenced by Mansour creating the first-ever U.S./Dutch Beach Handball team to compete on the EHF European Beach Handball Tour (ebt), KRAS/Volendam, but also in her nomination to the IHF Beach Handball Showcase team which will be working to promote the sport on the fringes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

And with an almost-impossible task to get out of their preliminary group – which features Netherlands, Norway and Denmark – Mansour is hoping that recent performances can make a difference.

“We had a very strong showing at our regional championships back in Puerto Rico in April and we're focused on continuing our team chemistry and continuing to build just as we did at the previous world championship, and then bringing it with everything we have,” explained Mansour to ihf.info.

“Our group is definitely a challenging one. We have a lot of talent in the three teams that we’re matched up against but we'll train and prepare as we would for any other world championship or big tournament and we'll watch film and prepare as much as we can.

“We're planning on competing hard and seeing what happens,” she added. “We're excited to play as none of us have played in China before so that will be a cool new spot where Beach Handball is taking us and we're all very excited about that. 

“We're just planning on competing hard, doing our best and having fun in the spirit of Beach Handball.”

Most recently, USA coach Daniel Lara Cobos – who guided Spain’s women to the 2016 IHF Women’s Beach Handball Championship title – took his team to Stage 1 of the 2024 IHF Beach Handball Global Tour in Marica, Brazil.

However, due to availability and selection issues the USA squad was unrecognisable for those who follow the sport, with all eight players making their international debuts. This directly translated into six, 0-2 losses (vs Portugal, Puerto Rico, Brazil, Argentina, Uruguay and Puerto Rico again), but much-needed experience for new players to provide squad depth.

Six of the eight from Marica have been included in the USA’s provisional 15-name squad for China 2024, with Mansour joined by fellow, long-term players Mellisa Browne, Renee Snyder and Ashley van Ryn.

Coach: Daniel Lara Cobos

Key Players: Christine Mansour, Melissa Browne

Qualification information: 2024 NACHC Women’s North America and Caribbean Beach Handball Championships – 1st

History in Tournament: 2004-2016: DNQ, 2018: 14th, 2022: 14th

Group at China 2024: Group C: Netherlands, Norway, Denmark, USA