Handball goes America: Much to everybody’s surprise all matches of the Olympic Handball Tournaments (in contrast to Barcelona 1992) in handball no-man’s-land were sold out. More than 35,000 spectators watched the men’s indoor final between Croatia and Sweden at the Georgia Dome, meaning an Olympic record to date. And the Atlanta Games went down in history due to the surprising champions, as Croatia’s men and Denmark’s women earned their first Olympic gold and were meant to go down in Olympic history later on.  Number of participants and format: twelve men’s teams, eight women’s teams; preliminary round, semi-finals, finals and placement matches. 

Title defenders CIS – meanwhile competing as the Russian Federation – ranked only third to fail to qualify for the semi-finals. Thus the way was paved for group winners Sweden and France as well as second-ranked Croatia and Spain. Egypt caused a splash when earning a 29:26 victory over Russia to rank fifth. Like four years before France lost their semi-final –they were defeated 20:24 (8:12) by Croatia. Sweden overcame Spain 25:20 (11:12) to advance to an Olympic final for the second consecutive time  – and World Handball Player of the Century Magnus Wislander & Co had to settle with the silver medal again. Only four years after the formation of the state of Croatia the team saved a narrow but sensational 27:26 (16:11) win over the ‘Three-Crown’ side to celebrate the gold. Led by Olympic top scorer Patrik Cavar (43 goals) the team continued tradition of the Balkan region that had reached its peak in 1972 and 1984 when they won Olympic gold. The Klajic family in particular cheered loudly, as father Velimir was the coach and son Nenad was the pivot. 

The history of Denmark’s ‘golden girls’, who secured the first Olympic title out of three in a row started at the Atlanta Games. Headed by coach Ulrich Wilbek, who brought the Danish ladies World Championship, European Championship and Olympic titles and the Danish men’s team two ECh titles, the Northern European side proved predominant during the group phase to earn three wins in three games.  The same was valid for Korea, who was eager to secure a title hat-trick after their Olympic gold medals in 1988 and 1992. Hungary and Norway ranking behind joined them in the semi-finals. Korea taught Hungary a lesson to earn a 39:25 (19:10) win, which became the clearest ever one in Olympic history, whereas Norway was outclassed 23:19 (12:6) by Denmark in the Northern European duel. Hungary proved well recovered in their match for the bronze to secure a 20:18 (6:9) win over Norway. It was the first time (but not the last time) that extra time was needed to establish the Olympic champions: The final score between Korea and Denmark after 60 exciting minutes was 29:29 – and finally Anja Andersen & Co. earned a 37:33 victory to celebrate their first Olympic gold. Korea’s O-Kyeong Lim scored 41 goals in total to earn a mere unofficial title as the top scorer of the tournament.

 

Gold: CRO, Silver: SWE, Bronze: ESP, 4. FRA - 5. RUS - 6. EGY - 7. GER - 8. SUI - 9. USA - 10. ALG - 11. BRA - 12. KUW

Gold: DEN, Silver: KOR, Bronze: HUN, 4. NOR, 5. CHN, 6. GER, 7. ANG, 8. USA