ihf.info looks back at the history of the Olympic Qualification Tournaments. The first editions provided the final teams for the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China.

WOMEN’S TOURNAMENTS
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.

Hungary’s Timea Toth finished as top-scorer across the three tournaments, with 30 goals, while her teammate Anita Gorbicz topped the assists (16) and goals and assists (42) charts. Amandine Leynaud ended as the best goalkeeper with an amazing 54% save ratio for France (34/63).

Korea would be the only team from the tournaments to win a medal in Beijing – bronze – while Hungary took fourth place.

Tournament 1 (Leipzig, Germany): Germany (GER), Croatia (CRO), Sweden (SWE), Cuba (CUB)

Germany won all three of their games at the Arena Leipzig to end up top of the group, narrowly overcoming Sweden 27:26 before defeating Croatia 22:16, a game which saw just 12 goals scored in the first half. With their wins over Croatia and Cuba, Sweden went through to Beijing in second place.

Results
CRO-CUB 31:25 (18:15)
GER-SWE 27:26 (15:13)
SWE-CUB 31:20 (17:10)
GER-CRO 22:16 (7:5)
SWE-CRO 24:22 (11:11)
CUB-GER 21:37 (14:21)

Ranking: 1 GER, 2 SWE, 3 CRO, 4 CUB 

Tournament 2 (Bucharest, Romania): Romania (ROU), Hungary (HUN), Japan (JPN), Poland (POL)

Another host nation went through in top spot with a 100% record as Romania made light work of Japan 44:21 before squeezing past Hungary 31:29 and Poland 27:26 at the Polyvalent Hall. They were joined by Hungary who consigned Japan to third spot with a 10-goal victory, 39:29.

Results
HUN-POL 39:30 (17:18)
ROU-JPN 44:21 (18:12)
JPN-POL 29:27 (14:8)
ROU-HUN 31:29 (17:13)
JPN-HUN 29:39 (14:20)
POL-ROU 26:27 (13:16)

Ranking: 1 ROU, 2 HUN, 3 JPN, 4 POL

Tournament 3 (Nimes, France): France (FRA), Republic of Korea (KOR), Cote d’Ivoire (CIV), Congo (CGO)

A draw between France and Korea highlighted just how close these teams were after both beat their African rivals to finish top on five points. The European side took the top spot with a better goal difference despite scoring fewer total goals across their three games at Le Parnasse.

Results
KOR-CGO 37:23 (21:9)
FRA-CIV 34:10 (16:7)
CIV-CGO 26:27 (13:12)
FRA-KOR 25:25 (13:14)
CIV-KOR 21:38 (9:15)
CGO-FRA 19:36 (9:19)

Ranking: 1 FRA, 2 KOR, 3 CGO, 4 CIV

MEN’S TOURNAMENTS
The men’s tournaments took place in Poland, France and Croatia across three days: Friday 30 May, Saturday 31 May and Sunday 1 June 2008 with Poland, Iceland, France, Spain, Croatia and Russia qualifying through.

Eventually, all three medals at the Games went to teams who had qualified through the tournaments, with France (gold), Iceland (silver) and Spain (bronze) standing on the podium, and Croatia finishing in fourth.

Eric Gull (ARG) finished at top scorer across the three tournaments, scoring 23 times, while Poland’s Grzegorz Tkaczyk led the assists chart (22). Arnor Atlason (34) and fellow Icelander Olafur Stefansson (33) were top of the goals and assists chart. 

Tomas Svensson (SWE) ended as the best overall goalkeeper with a 45% save ratio across the three games (25/55).

Tournament 1 (Wroclaw, Poland): Iceland (ISL), Argentina (ARG), Sweden (SWE) Poland (POL)

The Hala 100-Lecia in Wroclaw, Poland was the setting for Tournament 1 which saw the host nation go undefeated. They started with an opening 22:22 draw with Sweden followed by wins against Iceland and Argentina, enough to see them through. 

Iceland and Sweden went toe-to-toe in their final do-or-die match and after an all-equal first-half, Iceland prevailed 29:25, to qualify and go on to win that historic silver medal.

Results
ISL-ARG 36:27 (19:13)
POL-SWE 22:22 (10:10)
SWE-ARG 33:21 (17:7)
POL-ISL 34:28 (15:12)
SWE-ISL 25:29 (13:13)
ARG-POL 26:28 (11:13)

Ranking: 1 POL, 2 ISL, 3 SWE, 4 ARG

Tournament 2 (Paris, France): France (FRA), Tunisia (TUN), Spain (ESP), Norway (NOR)

The Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in France’s capital Paris was the setting as the host nation finished top of their group with three wins from three, qualifying through to Beijing 2008 where they would take gold. They were joined by Spain, who easily defeated Norway and squeezed past Tunisia 29:28 to take the second spot. The Spanish would eventually win bronze in Asia.

This tournament was the springboard for the birth and subsequent domination of “Les Experts” as they followed that Beijing gold with a period of 10 medals across the next 10 years.

They took 2009 World Championship gold, 2010 European Championship gold, 2011 World Championship gold, 2012 Olympic Games gold, 2014 European Championship gold, 2015 World Championship gold, 2016 Olympic Games silver, 2017 World Championship gold, 2018 European Championship gold and 2019 World Championship bronze.

Results
FRA-TUN 34:25 (15:8)
ESP-NOR 33:31 (18:7)
FRA-ESP 28:24 (16:13)
TUN-NOR 30:30 (18:17)
TUN-ESP 28:29 (14:16)
NOR-FRA 23:28 (15:13)

Ranking: 1 FRA, 2 ESP, 3 NOR, 4 TUN

Tournament 3 (Zadar, Croatia): Russia (RUS), Algeria (ALG), Croatia (CRO), Japan (JPN)

Croatia made it a full-house of home nation qualification as they won all six of their games to finish top of their group at the Sports Center Visnjik in the Croatian coastal town. Russia made it through with them in second place.

Results
RUS-ALG 39:12 (19:5)
CRO-JPN 37:22 (19:11)
JPN-ALG 38:27 (20:14)
CRO-RUS 26:24 (15:12)
JPN-RUS 31:44 (13:19)
ALG-CRO 26:37 (13:14)

Ranking: 1 CRO, 2 RUS, 3 JPN, 4 ALG