While no teams are making their debut at the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, no side between the 32 lining up at the start of the competition has waited more than Greenland to return to the world handball flagship competition.

After a 14-year wait, Ukraine finally return to the world stage at Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023. In the early years of the 2000s, they had a good run in all major international competitions, finishing second at the EHF EURO 2000 in Romania and fourth at the 2003 IHF World Championship in Croatia. Their efforts were crowned at the 2004 Olympic Games in Athens, where they won the bronze medal. 

Romania are the only team in history to have taken part at each and every edition of the IHF Women’s World Championship, this being their 26th appearance. However, the European side has been navigating on shaky ground over the last editions, having finished 10th at Germany 2017, 12th at Japan 2019 and 13th at Spain 2021.

The Czech Republic has a rich handball history, as Czechoslovakia won a title in 1957 and had several top-10 finishes up until 1993. Since, Czechia's best outcome was at the Women's IHF Handball Championship 2017 in Germany, when they reached the quarter-finals and finished eighth.

After missing out on the World Championship 2019 and EHF EURO 2022, with a 19th place at Spain 2021 in between, the Czech Federation decided to take a new turn and parted ways with head coach Jan Basny. In June 2022 Norwegian coach Bent Dahl took over the team, with high ambitions for Czechia.

Poland missed out on taking part at the 2019 IHF Women's World Championship and came to Spain 2021, after being named as the first substitute nation of the Continental Confederation. Now, after securing their place for the 18th time at the world handball flagship competition, with a win against Kosovo in the Qualification Europe Round 2, Poland is ready to make a step forward.