Crediting young players to deliver good performances was one of the attributes which brought Alfred Gislason to the position of coach for the Germany men’s senior national team, after the Icelandic coach led VfL Gummersbach and THW Kiel between 2006 and 2019.

Gislason has promoted many of the young players currently on the roster in the men’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. But few have shined more than right back Renars Uščins, who was the top scorer of the three Paris 2024 Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments back in March, with 26 goals, being Germany’s best scorer in each of the matches against Algeria (10 goals), Croatia and Austria (eight goals each).

Uščins have been long earmarked as a transcendental talent, delivering fantastic performances in the youth and junior Germany teams. He first showcased his talent at continental level, where he won the M18 EHF EURO 2021 with the Germany youth team and was selected in the All-Star team of the competition, as the best right back.

Last summer, Uščins was playing for the Germany junior team at the 2023 IHF Men’s Junior World Championship, which saw him and his teammates win the gold medal with a flawless display, eight wins in eight matches. Just before the world handball flagship competition, Uščins made his debut in the senior team, and was subsequently called up for the EHF EURO 2024.

Now, the right back, who is the son of a former Latvian handball player, Armands, the former coach of the Latvia men’s handball team, is lighting up the handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, being once again Germany’s top scorer in the wins against Sweden (30:27) and Japan (37:26), combining for 15 goals in these two matches.

“Last year I did not expect I will be in a squad of 17 people at the Olympic Games so I'm really thankful and really excited to be here, a part of the team. I'm trying to give back everything I can, to play a good handball and that's my goal for the rest of the tournament and of course the rest of the time here, in Paris,” said Uščins.

Germany delivered a fantastic start of the men’s handball competition at Paris 2024, with two wins against Sweden and Japan, being in the lead in Group A after two matches, before their schedule will be getting busier, with matches against Croatia, Spain and Slovenia following.

Especially the win against Japan, 37:26, was impressive in terms of the strength displayed by Germany, despite the one against Sweden, 30:27, delivering two crucial points against an opponent which won against Germany in January, in the bronze medal of the EHF EURO 2024.

Nevertheless, Uščins is adamant that Germany will try their best to secure another medal in the competition, their fifth in history and their third in the last 20 years, after the silver at Athens 2004 and bronze at Rio 2016.

“I think the biggest challenge for us, for a young team, is to play on a big level the whole competition. To go from game to game and reach the levels we played in the match against Sweden. That's our biggest challenge and if we want to play for medals or for something big, we need to do it,” says the 22-year-old right back, who is currently plying his trade at club level at TSV Hannover-Burgdorf, in the German Bundesliga, after coming through the ranks at powerhouse SC Magdeburg for nearly eight years.

But Uščins also had a small issue before the match against Japan, which opened up the second day of the men’s handball competition at Paris 2024, at 09:00 CEST. 

“I usually wake up at nine o’clock in the morning, therefore it was a bit difficult to wake up earlier and prepare for the match. Yet it worked out just fine,” smiled the right back, as Germany’s players woke up at five o’clock in the morning, to start their preparation at 5:50 in the Olympic Village, before travelling to the South Paris Arena 6.