As we now pause for breath between the IHF Tokyo Handball Qualification 2020 – Men’s Tournaments and the Women’s Tournaments, ihf.info takes a brief look at their history.

2003: Laying the foundations

There had long been discussions about the Olympic qualification pathway but it was not until the formation of a working group, consisting of Peter Mühlematter (SUI), Miguel Roca (ESP) and Frank Birkefeld (GER), that the qualification tournaments we see today started being formulated.

On 23 May 2003, that working group presented a working paper at the IHF headquarters in Basel, Switzerland, to get the ball rolling with an initial proposal which would take many turns before being put in place for Beijing 2008.

The working paper stated the following:

“In general, the Olympic Games and the respective qualifying should be completely separated from World Championships and their qualifying because they are two events apart. Sole exception would be that the reigning World Champion directly qualifies for the next Olympic Games.”

Using initial team allocation places of 12 men’s teams and 10 women’s teams for Beijing 2008, the proposal was as follows:

Beijing 2008 Men’s Handball Tournament (12 teams)
Host (1), World Champion (1), Pan America (1), Europe (1), Africa (1), Asia (1) = 6
Two Olympic Qualification Tournaments of 12 teams each, top three teams in each qualify = 6

Beijing 2008 Women’s Handball Tournament (10 teams)
Host (1), World Champion (1), Pan America (1), Europe (1), Africa (1), Asia (1) = 6
Four Olympic Qualification Tournaments of four teams each, top team in each qualify = 4

The working paper went on to explain the proposed qualification tournaments:

“Each continent, except the (then) Oceania Handball Federation (OHF) has to be represented by at least one team. The hosts receive one place. For the remaining teams it has to be assured that all teams from all continents have a chance to qualify.”

Effectively, there were now two stages to qualify for an Olympic Games, and this is still the case in 2021.

‘Qualification I’, as the working paper described it, was the continental champions from Africa, Asia, Europe, Pan America, the world champions and host nation – six teams directly pre-qualified.

‘Qualification II’ would be the Olympic Qualification Tournaments with a further six and four teams qualifying through from the men’s and women’s tournaments, respectively.

The initial Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments proposal saw two tournaments of 12 teams each (24 in total).

The 24 participants would consist of two teams each from Asia, Africa, Europe and Pan America (8), plus 16 teams from continents whose teams were ranked 2nd-17th at the last world championship. The top three teams in each qualifying group (6) would progress to the Olympics.

For the men, ‘Qualification I’ had to be completed by the January of the year the Olympic Games took place, while ‘Qualification II’ took place in March of the year of the Olympic Games, a total of 11 days over two weekends. The tournaments would feature nine referee couples, plus 12 officials/delegates.

For the initial Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments it was proposed to have four tournaments of four teams each (16).

The 16 participants would consist of two teams each from Asia, Africa, Europe and Pan America (8), plus eight teams from continents whose teams were ranked 2nd-9th at the last world championship. The top team in each qualifying group (4) would go through.

‘Qualification I’ for the women had to be completed by the December of the year prior to the Olympic Games, while ‘Qualification II’ took place in the February of the year of the Olympic Games, a total of 4 days over one weekend. The tournaments would feature four referee couples, plus eight officials/delegates.

2004: The next step

From 24 to 25 September 2004, Safat, Kuwait hosted the 12th IHF Council Meeting of the 2000-2004 election period with ‘Olympic Qualifications’ on the agenda.

According to the documentation from the time:

“…the Council had already dealt with the change of regulations for ‘Olympic qualifying rounds’ in the past and above all had focused on a clear separation of World Championship and Olympic Games qualifying rounds to reduce the number of qualified teams at World Championships and Olympic Games (for the time being seven in the men’s and five in the women’s category). 

“As a consequence the World Championships and Olympic Games would be two independently staged, first-rate IHF competitions (including qualification).”

The IHF Council, “after considerable discussion”, and based on a proposal and information from the working group, then decided the new qualification for the men’s and women’s competitions which would then be formulated in detail and eventually submitted to the International Olympic Committee (IOC) for formal approval.

2005: Becoming official

The 2nd IHF Council Meeting of the 2004-2008 election period took place in Hammamet, Tunisia from 6 to 7 February 2005 and ‘Qualifying for World Championships and Olympic Games’ was again on the agenda.

Working papers from the working group were distributed and it was “…to be followed up by the Executive Committee or by the Council, respectively.”

And in late October, good news came from Lausanne – there would be 12 women’s teams at the Beijing 2008 Olympic Games, to match the 12 men’s teams after the Executive Board of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) made the decision at their 27 October meeting in Lausanne, Switzerland.

2008: The first edition

So, the Olympic Games qualification pathway had been set and the first-ever Olympic Qualification Tournaments were ready to provide the final teams for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

The men’s tournaments took place in Poland, France and Croatia across three days: Friday 30 May, Saturday 31 May, Sunday 1 June, with Poland, Iceland, France, Spain, Croatia and Russia qualifying through.

The women’s tournaments took place in Germany, Romania and France across three days: Friday 28 March, Saturday 29 March and Sunday 30 March 2008 with Germany, Sweden, Romania, Hungary, France and Republic of Korea qualifying through.

Click here to read more.

2012: Becoming normal

The women’s tournaments took place in France, Sweden and Spain across three days: Friday 25 May, Saturday 26 May and Sunday 27 March 2012 with Montenegro, France, Russia, Denmark, Spain and Croatia qualifying through.

Tunisia’s Raja Toumi top-scored with 29 goals and headed the goals and assists charts with 35. Bojana Popovic had the most assists (15) for her Montenegro side while France’s Amandine Leynaud ended with the best goalkeeping stats – a 52% shot-to-save ratio (32/62).

Two teams from the qualification tournaments would take medals at London 2012, with Montenegro winning silver and Spain bronze.

The men’s tournaments took place in Spain, Sweden and Croatia across three days: Friday 6 April, Saturday 7 April and Sunday 8 April 2012, with a full European qualification sweep as Spain, Serbia, Sweden, Hungary, Croatia and Iceland went through.

Two of the qualified teams would go on to win medals at the Games with Sweden taking silver and Croatia bronze. Hungary would finish in fourth.

Spain’s Jose Manuel Sierra Mendez and Croatia’s Venio Losert both ended with a 46% save rate, with the Spaniard making 18 saves from 39 shots compared to 12 from 26 from the Croatian.

Iceland’s Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson top-scored with 25 goals and added eight assists, while Croatia’s Domagoj Duvnjak topped the assist charts (16).

Click here to read more.

2016: Dreams of Brazil

The women’s tournaments took place in France, Sweden and Spain across three days: Friday 18 March, Saturday 19 March and Sunday 20 March 2016 with France, Netherlands, Romania, Montenegro, Russia and Sweden qualifying through.

Montenegro’s Marina Rajcic ended up as the best goalkeeper with a 48% save ratio (14/29), while Japan’s Shio Fujii top-scored on 19. Anne Mette Hansen topped the assists with 15, while the legendary Swedish player Isabelle Gullden total 25 goals and assists.

The men’s tournaments took place in Poland, Sweden and Denmark across three days: Friday 8 April, Saturday 9 April and Sunday 10 April 2016, with Poland, Tunisia, Sweden, Slovenia, Denmark and Croatia qualifying through.

Poland’s Slawomir Szmal ended up with the best goalkeeping stats – 44% save ratio (18/41) – while Tunisia’s Oussama Boughanmi, Norway’s Kristian Bjornsen and Rodrigo Salinas of Chile – ended up joint top-scorers with 20 goals each. Croatia’s Domagoj Duvnjak led the top assists (16) and top scorer and assist (30) charts.

Click here to read more.

2021: Tokyo the aim

The Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games were postponed by one year exactly due to the COVID-19 global outbreak and, the tournaments were too.

The men’s tournaments took place in France, Germany and Montenegro across the weekend of Friday 12 March, Saturday 13 March and Sunday 14 March 2021 while the women’s tournaments take place in Hungary, Spain and Montenegro the following weekend – Friday 19 March, Saturday 20 March and Sunday 21 March 2021.

To read more about the women’s tournaments click here or the men’s tournaments, click here.