Another attendance record broken at China 2024, as women's handball is on the rise

Last Saturday, the attendance record for a women’s handball match was broken at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, when the final between France and Norway saw 26,664 spectators were in the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille for the match.

In fact, the attendance record for a women’s handball match has been improved six times over the previous one, 20,022, set in 2023 in the EHF FINAL4, as the interest in women’s handball has been growing higher and higher.

One week later, it was the time for yet another record to be broken, this time at the IHF Women’s World Championship for the younger age categories, as the match between Denmark and the People’s Republic of China, hosted in the International Handball Hall in Chuzhou, People’s Republic of China, drew 5,050 spectators.

The previous attendance record for the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship was set in 2018, when the competition took place in Poland, when the opener between the hosts, Poland, and Angola, saw 3,000 spectators flock to the Legionów Hall in Kielce to cheer for the favourites.

The People’s Republic of China, hosts for the 2024 edition, drew big interest for the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, with 2,000 spectators in the opening match, against Greenland, and 1,000 spectators watching the match against the Chinese Taipei on Friday.

In total, over 8,000 spectators were present only for China’s matches, but spectators from Denmark, Argentina, Japan, Switzerland, Spain, Germany or Romania also made the trip to Chuzhou to watch the players deliver a fantastic edition so far, with the preliminary round ending on Saturday, after the first 48 matches were completed.

16 teams made it to the main round, with Sweden and Serbia from Group A, Croatia and Montenegro from Group B, Japan and the Netherlands from Group C, France and Brazil from Group D, Denmark and the People’s Republic of China from Group E, Hungary and Norway from Group F,  Spain and Switzerland from Group G and Germany and Czechia from Group H continuing to dream about the trophy.