It was meant to become a red-letter day and the longest final in history, and it was an Olympic handball tournament watched by more than 250,000 spectators. Athens celebrated a sport that had not been in the focus in Greece before. And the Greek people also celebrated their home side, which, headed by Swedish coach Ulf Schefvert, came off sixth on the spur of the moment in the men’s tournament which the Croats won for the second time after 1996. And a change to the competition format caused great excitement, as the quarter-finals were staged for the first time in the men’s and women’s tournament, and thus Germany, for instance, which had ranked third after the preliminaries, made through to the finals anyway. 

Croatia and France soared to five wins each in their group to secure the top position, ahead of Spain and Hungary.  The Frenchmen, however, underestimated Russia in the quarter-finals to be outclassed 24:26. During the 7m shoot-out Germany’s goalkeeper Henning Fritz made Spain collapse. Following three 7m runs the Iberians lost 30:32. Favourites Hungary (30:25 against Korea) and Croatia (33:27 against Greece) earned easy wins. While the team from the Balkan region had trouble overcoming Hungary 33:31 (18:16) in the semi-finals to secure their ticket to their second Olympic final after 1996, Germany cruised to a 21:15 (9:10) victory over Russia, that was able to outrank the Magyars 28:26 and to secure the bronze. Nothing could stop the Croats in the final. They won 26:24 (11:12) to render coach Lino Cervar immortal. Croatia’s current successor Slavko Goluza won his second Olympic gold as a player. Korea’s Kyung Shin-Yoon contributed 58 goals to grab the top scorer award. 

In the women’s tournament Russia and Norway surprisingly had failed to qualify for - Denmark managed the gold hat-trick after 1996 and 2000 thanks to an almost two-hour final against Korea – the constellation was the same as the one of the Atlanta final. The two teams had already once met in the preliminaries for the first time to draw. To everybody’s surprise, the Ukraine finished at the top of the other group ahead of Hungary and China whereas France and Spain were the teams of the Danish-Korean group that advanced to the quarter-finals. Korea had to work hard against Brazil to secure a 26:24 win; the Ukraine soared to victory (over Spain) again, and the Frenchwomen earned their first ever spot in an Olympic semi-final. It was their final destination due to a narrow 31:32 defeat to Korea. The Danish ladies claimed an easy 39:20 (18:14) victory against the Ukraine, that was rewarded with the bronze thanks to their 21:18 win over France – the Ukraine’s greatest handball achievement ever. After 60 minutes in the final the score was 25:25, 29:29 after the first extra-time period and 34:34 after the second extra-time period. Consequently a 7m shoot-out was needed for the first time in history to establish the Olympic champion. The Danes had the nerves to earn a 38:36 victory over the deeply disappointed Koreans. Denmark’s Katrine Fruelund contributed an Olympic record number of 15 goals in the final. Hungary’s Bojana Radulovicz earned the top scorer award (54 goals). 

 

Gold: CRO, Silver: GER, Bronze: RUS, 4. HUN - 5. FRA - 6. GRE - 7. ESP - 8. KOR- 9. ISL - 10. BRA - 11. SLO - 12. EGY

Gold: DEN, Silver: KOR, Bronze: UKR, 4. FRA, 5. HUN, 6. ESP, 7. BRA, 8. CHN, 9. ANG, 10. GRE