Four teams are alive in the women’s handball competition at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games and, coincidentally, these are the four same teams which made the semi-finals at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship last December.

The two matches will provide an entertaining evening for handball fans, with the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille expected once again to be sold out, after the record attendance for a women’s handball match was broken in the quarter-finals, when France beat Germany.

Paris 2024 – women’s handball competition – semi-finals schedule

Thursday, 8 August

• 16:30 CEST Sweden vs France
• 21:30 CEST Norway vs Denmark

Sweden need to break the France hoodoo: Sweden have been actively searching for a medal, which evaded them since the EHF EURO 2014, when they finished third on the podium. But France are really a team which Sweden have yet mastered to control, conceding seven losses and two draws in the last nine matches. The last Sweden win against the reigning Olympic champions came at the EHF EURO 2014, 29:26. But once again, the path towards a medal for Sweden sees France in the Scandinavian side’s path, just like at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship. At Tokyo 2020, France took a 29:27 win, after a hard-fought win, while last December, at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023, France controlled the match from start to finish, to deliver a fantastic 37:28 win, on the way to the title. In fact, France have a fantastic streak both in major international competitions, winning the last 15 matches, being the team to beat in the past year. Can Sweden do it this time, in Lille, where France will aim to break the record attendance for a women’s handball match once again, like they did on Tuesday?

Will pressure ride on the shoulders of France? The women’s handball competition will be France’s only chance at a medal at Paris 2024, after the men’s team was eliminated from contention by Germany. Pressure has been on France since the start of the competition, but they have managed it quite succesfully, having their best-ever run at the Olympics, a six-match winning streak, delivering win after win at Paris 2024. With Olivier Krumbholz leaving his position at the end of the competition, France will desperately aim to clinch another gold medal, which would see them secure back-to-back titles at the Olympics, but the pressure has gotten to them in the quarter-finals, where their efficiency dipped against Germany, something that cannot happen against Sweden, which are ready to deliver a good performance.

Can Denmark finally beat Norway in a do-or-die match? Back in 2022, in the final of the EHF EURO, they led by four goals against Norway in the 44th minute, eventually conceding a 25:27 loss. One year later, last December, at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, they played once again against Norway, this time in the semi-finals. The two teams have already met at Paris 2024, with Norway winning again, this time by a nine-goal margin, 27:18. Sure, the pressure is bigger, the conditions are different now, but this is still a 60-minute match, with every attack being crucial. It is also the last chance for this Norway group to win a medal, with Stine Oftedal retiring after the Olympic, while Katrine Lunde and Camilla Herrem being closer to the end of their careers rather than the first steps in handball.

New milestones for Lunde and Mork? Goalkeeper Katrine Lunde will play her 39th match at the Olympics, with a chance of going for 40 on Saturday, provided she does not get replaced for the last match. But if Norway win their match against Denmark, Lunde would have already written history, as the Scandinavian side will be sure of a medal. It would be Lunde’s fifth at the Olympic Games, a new record, as she is currently tied with former teammate Marit Malm Frafjord. On the other hand, Mork can also become the top scorer at the Olympics, being only six goals shy of the record set by Alexandra do Nascimento. The right back has had a quiet competition by her standards, with only 15 goals so far, currently tied with former Korea centre back Seong Oh Ok for the second place in the all-time top goal scorer standings.

Powerhouses face off again: France and Sweden met in the semi-finals of the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games and the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship. Norway and Denmark met in the EHF EURO 2022 final and the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship semi-finals. Basically, the best four teams in the last edition of the world handball flagship competition are back into the final four once again at Paris 2024, with the same pairings in the penultimate act at the Olympics. Moreover, Denmark, France and Norway have been in the top four in the last four major international competitions, while Norway or France have won every major international competition since the 2019 IHF Women’s World Championship, making it clear that they are in the top tier in women’s handball over the last years.