Germany come to Dakar 2026 as the highest-ranked men’s side, having won silver at the 2025 IHF Men’s Youth Beach Handball World Championship in Tunisia last year.

With world champions Spain not present in Senegal, Germany will have a clearer path to gold in West Africa as their younger age team look to emulate their senior team who have won everything possible in the game in recent years and are current holders of their continental title as well as both The World Games and world championship titles.

In fact, since the German Handball Federation (DHB) resurrected their beach handball interest in the mid-2010s, after it was dormant for nearly a decade after early success, the German senior teams have won everything there is to win on the sand, with the youth teams following closely behind.

And coach Konrad BANSA, instrumental in helping with the resurgence of German beach handball, is clear what the goal is for his team at Dakar 2026, where they will face Tunisia, Thailand and the Cook Islands in the preliminary group stage.

“The goal is a medal,” said the 51-year-old to IHF.info ahead of the tournament start and it is no surprise, seeing as eight of his squad of 10 named for Senegal finished as runners-up at the U17 EHF Beach Handball European Championships earlier this year, again losing to Spain in the final.

BANSA has been in the role for a decade, dating back to when the first junior team was formed in 2016 and is no stranger to playing on the sand either, picking up silver with Germany at the 2004 EHF Beach Handball European Championship.

“We're very balanced across all positions and have an excellent team spirit, with a shared sense of ambition,” he continued. “The key to success is usually finding the right solutions in stressful situations. As the reigning world championship silver medallists, we are travelling to Dakar with confidence. As coaches, we are fulfilling a long-held dream of our own: to one day have the five rings at a competition.”

One of BANSA’s key players will be Thure BIELFELDT who is a significant defensive threat and who honed his skills from playing in the German basketball league into beach handball.

“Competing in the Olympics is a dream for every athlete. It will be the biggest tournament I've ever played in my career so far,” he said to IHF.info.

“We know all three teams in our preliminary group from Tunisia 2025 but didn't play against any of them so it will definitely be an interesting group and we are looking forward to the tournament with extremely great pleasure and we all want to do well at the Olympic Games.”

“It is not an easy group to assess,” adds BANSA. “Tunisia played a very strong world championship as the host nation last year, while Thailand are a quick and agile team who can cause problems for anyone. At Tunisia 2025 the Cook Islands were still quite new to the international stage, but they will certainly have learned a lot from that experience and would have continued to improve since then.”

With Germany one of the biggest markets in the world for handball, success on the beach for the nation directly translates into interest back home, with the senior figures at the DHB in no doubt about the importance of a team appearing at the global event.

“We are really looking forward to participate at Dakar 2026 with our team as to be a part at the Youth Olympic Games is a huge step and a huge achievement for beach handball in Germany. It’s a sign that we are on the right path and that our effort it will be recognised by others,” explained Ingo MECKES, Chief Sports Officer at the German Handball Federation.

“Furthermore, representing Team Germany at an Olympic event is always something very special for every athlete. Beach handball is growing year after year and we are really putting a lot of effort into developing the importance of the sport in Germany. 

“Dakar 2026 is one huge milestone for our development but, of course, our eyes are also focused on the World Games 2029 in Karlsruhe where we are playing with our women’s and men’s teams. 

“We want to continue our results we achieved in the last couple of years where we are celebrating a lot of medals in youth and senior competitions so that means that we want to be a contender for a medal (at Dakar 2026).

“For us, this is a long-held dream finally coming true,” adds Jens PFANDER, Head of Beach Handball, at the German Handball Federation. “That makes it very special.”

The final preparations for BANSA and his squad took place at the dedicated indoor beach sports facility in Witten in addition to a visit to the ‘Team Germany’ German Olympic Sports Confederation (DOSB) headquarters in Frankfurt where Mads KRÜGER and Tayo RODRIGUEZ were voted in as team vice captains for Dakar 2026.

Coach: Konrad BANSA
Key players: Dave BIYAH (Pivot/All-Rounder), Mads KRÜGER (Specialist), Tayo RODRIGUEZ (Defender), Thure BIELFELDT (Defender)
Qualification information: Tunisia 2025 – 2nd
History in tournament: 2018: DNQ
Group at Dakar 2026: Group A – Tunisia (TUN), Thailand (THA), Germany (GER), Cook Islands (COK)