Hungary women’s national team returned to the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020 for the first time after 12 years, but their seventh place, secured after a 22:26 loss against Norway in the quarter-finals, was far from enough to fulfil the appetite for the European side, which had previously won a silver medal and two bronze medals.

The best results for Hungary came over two decades ago, when they clinched the bronze medal at Atlanta 1996 and the silver at Sydney 2000, with Hungary finishing fifth at Athens 2004, fourth at Beijing 2008 and seventh at Tokyo 2020.

It was a long time coming, but the attention on developing players and the success recorded at the younger age category level, including world titles at the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship and at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship have finally yielded results at the senior level.

Back-to-back appearances at the Olympic Games and a strong outing in the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament saw Hungary on an upward trend, including finishing on the 10th place at the IHF Women’s World Championship in 2021 and 2023, as well as on the 10th place at the EHF EURO 2022.

Back in April, at the Paris 2024 Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournament they hosted in Debrecen, Hungary delivered three excellent performances, with a 49:11 win against Great Britain, 28:25 win against Sweden and a 37:28 win against Japan, displaying both an excellent defence and an efficient attack, as they finished on the first place and punched their tickets to Paris 2024.

However, Hungary have a young squad at their disposal, with only three players between the 14 selected by coach Vladimir Golovin being aged 30 years or older. The average age is 26.07 years old, which can bring a certain lack of experience to the table, especially in an environment where missteps are punished.

“The girls are in very good shape, so the decision was difficult together with the staff, but we had to reduce the squad to 17 players. The squad announcement was not an easy moment for either the players or the coaching staff, as everyone wants to be there at the Olympics. We looked at the best composition of the team from many points of view. Seventeen players continue to work,” said coach Vladimir Golovin.

Backs Katrin Klujber and Csenge Kuczora will be the main weapons in attack, while the experience of wings Viktória Győri-Lukács and Nadine Szöllősi-Schatzl is hard to match, offering plenty of variety in an attack which will be seriously tested at Paris 2024.

The European side has three opponents from the same continents – the Netherlands, Spain and hosts France – in the group, as well as two non-European sides, Pan American champions Brazil and African champions Angola, in what should be a very tough to predict group.

Hungary

Coach: Vladimir Golovin

Key Players: Katrin Klujber (right back), Viktória Győri-Lukács (right wing), Csenge Kuczora (left back)

Qualification for Paris 2024: Olympic Qualification Tournament #1: 1st place

Previous appearances: 1976: Bronze medal, 1980: 4th, 1996: Bronze medal, 2000: Silver medal, 2004: 5th, 2008: 4th, 2020: 7th 

Group at Paris 2024: Group B: Hungary, Netherlands, Spain, France, Brazil, Angola