The second boycott Games during the ‘Cold War’ period in a row. That time most of the Eastern Bloc states did not participate that posed a great challenge for the IHF, as the Eastern European countries were the leading handball nations at that time. A total of six countries (USSR, GDR, Poland, Hungary, Czechoslovakia and Cuba) did not participate in the men’s tournament. Consequently B World Championship countries FRG, Sweden, Switzerland, Spain, Iceland as well as South Korea moved up. Yugoslavia profited from the absence of top nations to gain both gold medals - such as the USSR did at the Montreal Games in 1976 – two years ahead of the men’s team gaining the World Championship title. The Germans from the FRG caused a big surprise in the men’s tournament. They earned five preliminary round victories to finish at the top of that group, ahead of Denmark, and to qualify for the final. Yugoslavia won the decisive match of the other group against Romania to finish one point ahead of their old rivals, who, however, cheered their fourth Olympic medal in a row: Romania, who had ranked second in 1976, secured their third bronze medal after 1972 and 1980. They overcame Denmark 23:19 (15:10) in the match for third place. The Germans had managed a 8:7 half-time lead but Yugoslavia finally earned a lucky 18:17 win – the starting point of the best Yugoslav squad ever including the first World Handball Player: Veselin Vujovic, who is the national head coach of Serbia today, or Mirko Basic.

The women’s tournament saw some teams which had moved up too. The Federal Republic of Germany, Austria and China replaced title holders Soviet Union and the remaining 1980 medallists GDR and Hungary in Los Angeles. Four victories in a row – among others a 29:23 win over later silver medallists South Korea made Yugoslavia the new Olympic champions prior to their last (and successful) match. China caused a sensation to win the bronze behind the Koreans – whose star began to rise in Los Angeles and was meant to shine even brighter four years ahead. 

 

Gold: YUG,  Silver: FRG, Bronze: ROM, 4. DEN - 5. SWE - 6. ISL - 7. SUI - 8. ESP - 9. USA - 10. JPN - 11. KOR, 12. ALG

Gold: YUG, Silver: KOR, Bronze: CHN, 4. GER, 5. USA, 6. AUT