Sweden have made it to the Olympic Games for the fifth consecutive edition, extending a streak started at Beijing 2008, which continued at London 2012, Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020. The last edition was also the most succesful one for the Scandinavian side, which finished on the fourth place, missing out on a medal by a whisker.

This time around, Sweden are back in business and their consistency has been special, as they have not finished lower than the seventh place at the IHF Women’s World Championship in the past four editions, ending up on the fourth position at Germany 2017 and Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023, as well as fifth at the EHF EURO 2022.

With a fantastic generation, with players like Jamina Roberts, Nathalie Hagman and Linn Blohm, which are likely to play in their last edition of the Olympics, Sweden have the experience on their side, but the rhythm – with matches every two days and only 14 players on the sheet for each match – can bring a question or two to coach Tomas Axner.

“We feel safe with our squad, which can give us tools to change match patterns both offensively and defensively, while at the same time it contains a lot of routine with players who have participated in the Olympics before,” said Axner.

“Taking a squad to a championship is always difficult, for the Olympics it is even tougher as the squad can only consist of 14 players and three reserves. We have a number of injuries to established players which made this puzzle even more difficult.”

Indeed, players who have appeared in Sweden’s squad in previous competitions, like wing Olivia Melegaard, back Nina Dano and line player Anna Lagerquist were not available for Paris 2024, but Axner have experience at his disposal, with all of Sweden’s players having featured at least 30 times for the squad.

The Scandinavian side secured their tickets to Paris 2024 via the Olympic Qualification Tournament #1, where they ended up on the second place, with wins against Japan, 35:28, and Great Britain, 52:8, and a loss against Hungary, 25:28.

There, Sweden aimed to secure the first place, but eventually failed, as Hungary proved too strong, with Axner’s side failing to provide a competitive pace throughout the 60 minutes, which meant that the coach had to go back to the drawing board.

At Paris 2024, Sweden will face four other European sides, including two powerhouses of the continent, Norway and Denmark, with the latter securing a 28:27 win against Sweden in the bronze medal match at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship back in December.

Germany and Slovenia are also on Sweden’s list of opponents, while the fifth opponent will be the Republic of Korea, a plucky Asian side, which Sweden played four times against in their history, losing twice and winning twice, including a 39:30 win in the quarter-finals at Tokyo 2020.

Sweden

Coach: Tomas Axner

Key Players: Jamina Roberts (left back), Nathalie Hagman (right wing), Linn Blohm (line player)

Qualification for Paris 2024: Olympic Qualification Tournament #1: 2nd place

Previous appearances: 2008: 8th, 2012: 11th, 2016: 7th, 2020: 4th  

Group at Paris 2024: Group A: Norway, Germany, Slovenia, Sweden, Denmark, Republic of Korea