Twelve women’s and twelve men’s teams will participate in the Olympic Handball Tournaments in London in 2012 – as already at the last Olympic Games 2008 in Beijing.
The only country directly qualified so far, with a men’s and a women’s team, is host Great Britain. The qualification mode for the other 22 places has now been confirmed by the International Olympic Committee. It is as follows:
The World Champions 2011 of the men (WCh in Sweden in January) and of the women (WCh in Brazil in December) are directly qualified. In addition four men’s teams and four women‘s teams qualify directly through continental championships or tournaments. The first qualified country will be determined on 19 December after the final of the Women’s European Championship, whereas the last will be known after the 2012 Men’s European Championship. The other continental tournaments will take place between February and October. Therefore there are six fixed places for both men and women for London.
The remaining twelve free places (six for men and six for women) will be allocated at qualification tournaments, carried out from 6 to 8 April 2012 (men) and from 25 to 27 May 2012 (women). There will be three tournaments for both men and women with four teams each.
These participants will be determined at the 2011 World Championships in Sweden and Brazil. The second to seventh ranked teams are all qualified for these tournaments, unless they have directly qualified for London through continental tournaments. If this is the case, the succeeding teams will take their places. In addition the second to fourth ranked teams of the 2011 World Championships are generally entitled to host the qualification tournaments. Six of the twelve places at the Olympic qualification tournaments are based on the WCh results.
The remaining six places will be distributed among the continents. The four best ranked continents at the 2011 World Championships are each allocated one place. In addition the two best ranked continents are both allocated one further starting place.
In each of these six qualification tournaments, the first and second ranked teams will qualify for the Olympic Games in London.