With a fantastic defensive display, learning from their previous mistakes, Norway secured their third Olympic Games title in history, outplaying hosts France in the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille, in front of a record-breaking attendance for a women’s handball match, 26,664 spectators.

The gold medal match was nip-and-tuck in the first half, with Norway pulling away in the second part for a clear 29:21  win, which saw them earn their third gold medal, joint-largest number in history, and their eight overall medal at the Olympic Games. This was also the largest gap in an Olympic final in the women’s handball competition, beating the previous record of seven goals.

PARIS 2024 OLYMPIC GAMES
FINAL
Norway vs France 29:21 (15:13)

And so the story writes itself. The team with the largest number of medals won in the women’s handball competition at the Olympic Games, eight, is now also the team with the joint largest number of Olympics titles, three.

But for the story to come full circle, Norway needed a wake-up call. Usually, the Scandinavian team starts strong in major competitions. This time, they had a four-goal lead against Sweden in the first match at Paris 2024, only to drop the win. That meant that something was wrong with the Scandinavian side.

Or was it?

Seven wins later, Norway are back on the top of the world, having delivered a fantastic competition, dominating their opponents on their way to the third Olympics title, after the ones sealed at Beijing 2008 and London 2012. And they did it their way, with a fantastic defence, a superb goalkeeper and a great centre back, in Stine Bredal Oftedal, who now ends her career on a high.

It was far from easy, especially in a packed Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille, where 26,664 spectators set a new attendance record for women’s handball, breaking the previous one set in the quarter-finals, when France met Germany.

Playing in France, against France, it is never easy. And for the first four minutes and 27 seconds, anyone asking whether Norway had the grit and strength to deliver a winning performance got a resounding no for an answer. That was the time it took the Scandinavian side to score their first goal, while their opponents, France cruised to a 3:0 lead.

For any other team, it would have been crushing. For Norway, it was just business as usual. They knew that France beat them last December, in Herning, in the final of the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship. They adapted, regrouped and focused on the task at hand.

And the resounding “no” became a “maybe” after a 4:0 unanswered run from Norway, spurred by two goals from right back Nora Mork, to turn the match on its head, as the reigning European champions took a 5:4 lead, preventing France to score for six minutes.

The attack has been a theme for France since Olivier Krumbholz’s side lost the final of the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship, when Norway delivered a clinical second half to mount a comeback against “Les Bleuses”. Yet for 20 minutes in this match, everything clicked for France, which even had a two-goal lead, 11:9.

It was their last. Because Norway, which also missed two penalties in the first half, finally got peak Henny Reistad back, after the 2023 IHF Female Player of the Year returned after an injury, which sidelined her for the first two matches at Paris 2024. With three goals in three minutes, Reistad spurred a Norway run which saw Thorir Hergeirsson’s side take a 15:13 lead at the break.

What France needed to do to return in the lead was to improve their attacking efficiency, which had dropped in the knockout phase, against Germany and Sweden. In the first half, it stood at 54%. Norway had 65%. And then it got worse for France.

In the first 15 minutes of the second half, France scored only three times, crushed by the pressure and by Norway goalkeeper Katrine Lunde, who had nine saves for a 38% saving efficiency. France’s fans were silent. Their team was down six goals, 21:15, and the gold medal was slipping away.

The combination of line player Kari Brattset Dale, who scored four goals between the 31st and 41st minutes, and Reistad was absolutely unplayable for France’s defence, as Krumbholz substituted goalkeeper Laura Glauser with Hatadou Sako in order to instil new life in his team.

Down seven goals in the 51st minute, France looked depleted and without any resource to comeback. Somehow, they cut the gap to only four goals, but it was too little too late, especially against a team like Norway, which knew exactly what to do and how to score to keep the lead.

As Reistad finished the match with eight goals, seconded by Oftedal, in her last match of her star-studded career, with five goals, Norway eventually clinched a 29:21 win, bringing the first goal medal for all of their stars, apart from Katrine Lunde and Camilla Herrem, who had previously sealed gold medals.

This was also the largest win in the history of the finals in the women’s handball competition, beating the previous record of seven goals, set by the Republic of Korea at Seoul 1988 and by Norway at Beijing 2008.

Norway secured their third gold medal in history, while Katrine Lunde became the first player to clinch five medals in the women’s handball competition at the Olympic Games. Teammate Camilla Herrem became the third player to win at least four medals, after Lunde and former Norway line player, Marit Malm Frafjord.

France, on the other hand, clinched their third medal in a row – one gold at Tokyo 2020 and the silver at Rio 2016 – conceding their first loss of the competition in the most important match – the gold medal one.