Despite moving up to sit at the top table of international handball over the last four years thanks to two World Championship silver medals (2017, 2019) and a bronze European championship medal (2020), Norway’s men’s team have only ever appeared at one Olympic Games.

That solitary appearance was at the first-ever Olympic Games to feature indoor handball – the 1972 edition in Munich – a tournament they qualified for after finishing second in the then European qualification tournament. 

It is hard to look at any recent competitive action on the global stage for Republic of Korea ahead of their appearance at the Tokyo Handball Qualification 2020 Tournament 1 in Montenegro, where they will face Brazil, Norway and Chile.

A place at the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games awaits the top two teams, but despite appearing – in some form at least – at the last two IHF Men’s World Championships in 2019 and 2021 after missing the previous two editions, little has been seen of the Korean team which will appear in Podgorica. 

A disappointing 27th IHF Men’s World Championship campaign in January rang the alarm bells for Croatia. Finishing 15th, their worst-ever placement in the history of the tournament, saw legendary coach Lino Cervar step down, despite his experience and tactical nous being next to none for the challenge up ahead.

Assistant coach Hrvoje Horvat took over and his honeymoon period was short as the Tokyo Handball Qualification 2020 lies ahead, with Croatia eyeing their fifth consecutive Olympic Games berth.

While Brazil were finishing second at the 2020 South and Central America Handball Confederation (SCAHC) Championship last January, their attention was also on both the European and African Championships, running concurrently.

The reason? They were hoping for Egypt to win the CAHB Men’s African Championship, which they did, and the following day were hoping for Norway, Germany, Sweden, Croatia or Spain to win the European Championship, and Spain did.

2016 was an exceptional year for the Germany men’s national team. At the EHF EURO in Poland, they surprised everyone and triumphed against Spain after an outstanding first half, where All-star goalkeeper Andreas Wolff conceded only six goals and paved the way for the commanding 24:17 victory in the final. 

Four-time winners at the IHF Men’s World Championship and four-time European champions, Sweden have long sought the holy grail to complete their hat-trick of medals. However, they have failed to win the gold medal at the Olympic Games in nine tries, finishing second four times.

The golden generation of Swedish handball is long gone, yet something special is brewing once again in Scandinavia under the leadership of Glenn Solberg.

Coach Christian Berge has pushed the Norwegian men’s team up the mountain of world handball in recent years, but they are yet to reach the summit, winning two World Championship silver medals (2017, 2019), a bronze European championship medal (2020) and claiming a fourth-place finish in at the EHF EURO 2016.

The pulsating emotions of the partisan fans at the Future Arena back at the Rio 2016 Olympic Games propelled the Brazil men’s team to their best-ever ranking in their fifth Olympic experience.

However, their seventh-placed ranking could have been even higher had they not come up against the legendary French in the quarter-final. An emotionally drained Brazil were outclassed, losing 27:34, but that could fuel the fire of the squad going into Tokyo 2020.

Since their first Olympic Games participation in 1992, France have never finished lower than sixth place, winning two gold medals, a silver and a bronze.

Their golden generation, who secured wins at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 is now gone, but a new one is emerging, finishing fourth at the 2021 IHF Men’s World Championship in Egypt, after starting the tournament with seven wins in a row.