Korean women's handball heads to Paris Olympics as sport's sole Asian team

Japan narrowly missed out on one of the 12 spots after finishing third at a qualification tournament over the weekend.

The Korean women's handball team reacts after beating China in the Hangzhou Asian Games semifinal held at Zhejiang Gongshang University Sports Centre in Hangzhou, China on Oct. 3, 2023. [YONHAP]

The Korean women’s handball team will be Asia's sole representative at the Paris Olympics this summer after Japan narrowly missed out on one of 12 spots this week.

Korea earned their spot by winning the Asian Women's Handball Qualification for the 2024 Olympic Games that took place in Japan last year.

Japan finished as runners-up in that tournament, leaving their hopes for reaching the Olympics to the 2024 IHF Women’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments, which ran from April 11 to 14. A total of 12 teams, divided into three groups of four, played with a round-robin system.

Japan finished third at the IHF competition — where the top two teams qualify for the Olympics — and failed to reach the Games again.

Hungary and Sweden qualified for the Olympics out of the same group as Japan alongside four countries from two other groups: The Netherlands, Spain, Germany and Slovenia.

Denmark, Angola, Brazil, Norway, Hungary and Sweden join the 12 qualified teams with host country France.

China, meanwhile, finished in third place in last year’s qualifying event and failed to reach this year’s qualification pathway.

Kazakhstan finished in fourth place, and India came in fifth in last year’s qualifying event — also falling short of a chance to vie for Olympic qualification.

The Korean women’s team has seen Olympics success in the past, having collected six medals — two gold, three silver and one bronze — so far.

A bronze medal in 2008, however, was the last Olympic medal the Korean women's team secured. Their best result since then was a fourth-place finish at the 2012 Olympics.

They will join the Olympics on the back of a silver medal at the Hangzhou Asian Games last year.

The 12 teams at this year’s Olympics will be divided in two and play group stage games before the knockout rounds.

The Korean men’s team, on the other hand, will not compete at this year’s Olympics as they failed to grab a spot through the Asian qualification tournament last year.

Unlike the women's team, the men have seen little success at the Olympics, having secured one silver medal in 1988, which remains the only handball medal the Korean men's team has ever won.

Japan was the only Asian country that qualified for the men's tournament in Paris.

Japan will compete against 11 other countries in the men’s tournament: Host country France, Denmark, Argentina, Sweden, Egypt, Spain, Slovenia, Croatia, Germany, Norway and Hungary.

The Paris Olympics will run from July 26 through Aug. 11.

BY PAIK JI-HWAN [paik.jihwan@joongang.co.kr]