Croatia’s men have won the handball competition of the 2025 Deaflympics which took place in Tokyo, Japan from 15-23 November. The side were reigning champions after taking the 2021 edition in Brazil, which also featured a women’s competition, won by Denmark.

The meaning of Deaflympics is ‘Deaf + Olympics’, making the Deaflympics an international ‘Olympics for Deaf people’. It is an international multi-sport event for deaf athletes held every four years, organised by the International Committee of Sports for the Deaf (ICSD).

The first Deaflympics were held in Paris, France in 1924 with the 2025 edition in Tokyo featuring 21 different sporting disciplines and celebrating its 100th anniversary edition.

A total of eight nations from four continents participated in the men’s competition: Croatia, Germany, France, Serbia, Türkiye, Brazil – coached by former men's national team coach Washington Nunes Silva Junior – Japan and Kenya. 

They were split into two preliminary groups of four each with the top two moving into the semi-finals and then medal matches, with the final won by Croatia, who beat Germany 30:23 (12:12) thanks to 10 strikes from Andrej Juricevic.

“The opportunity was there, and we could have won. But the Croatians played well and were a few steps ahead of us,” said German player Jörg Tomaschewski to Kieler Nachrichten via handball-world.news.

Handball first appeared at the Deaflympics at the 1969 edition held in Belgrade in the former Yugoslavia and has featured both men’s and women’s competitions in previous years.

Final Ranking
1 Croatia
2 Germany
3 France
4 Serbia
5 Türkiye
6 Brazil
7 Japan
8 Kenya

Results

Preliminary group stage
JPN-TUR 21:30
GER-BRA 39:15
SRB-KEN 26:16
CRO-FRA 35:25
BRA-JPN 27:24
TUR-GER 15:37
FRA-SRB 31:22
KEN-CRO 14:24
FRA-KEN 38:14
CRO-SRB 32:16
TUR-BRA 25:21
JPN-GER 10:32

Quarter-Finals
CRO-JPN 35:12
FRA-BRA 39:14
GER-KEN 34:6
TUR-SRB 34:38 (after additional time)

5-7 Placement round
JPN-TUR 25:30
KEN-BRA 21:25

Semi-finals
CRO-SRB 36:18
GER-FRA 29:18

7/8 Placement match
JPN-KEN 25:20

5/6 Placement match
TUR-BRA 34:21

Bronze medal match
SRB-FRA 20:26

Gold medal match
CRO-GER 30:23 (12:12)

For more information on Tokyo 2025 and the Deaflympics, visit HERE. For in-depth results, visit HERE.