Women's handball became the only ball sport at the Paris Olympics The field is “both a crisis and an opportunity”

Women's handball has become the only ball sport participating in the 2024 Paris Olympics. Handball officials looked at this and expressed both sadness and anticipation.

The mood for ball sports in Korea ahead of the Paris Olympics, which opens in July, is somewhat gloomy. This is because men's volleyball, women's volleyball, men's basketball, women's basketball, women's soccer, and men's handball have already failed to advance to the finals one after another, and on the 26th, even men's soccer missed a ticket to the finals.

In particular, the failure of men's soccer, which has not missed the finals for nine consecutive times since the 1988 Seoul Games, is even more shocking. The four major professional sports, including baseball, which is not an Olympic sport, are wiped out.

As a result, women's handball, which advanced to the finals for the 11th consecutive time, has become the only hope and pride of this Olympic ball game. In women's handball, coach Henrik Signel, a foreign coach, is leading the team.

Handball officials responded cautiously to this unexpected and bitter reality.

An official told ‘News 1’, “It is true that it is a burden (because only women’s handball remains). “Of course, I felt even more disappointed when I saw that even soccer was eliminated,” he said, carefully pointing out, “I can’t express it and I shouldn’t, but the current atmosphere is definitely more burdensome for the national team coach and players.”

He continued, “But there was always pressure in the Olympics. In reality, regardless of the situation in other ball games, it is ultimately a fight within handball,” he said. “I just hope that we can prepare well for the remaining period and get good results.” However, the situation in women's handball is not so optimistic. There was a time when Korean women's handball was at the top of the world, winning gold medals in the 1988 and 1992 competitions, but recently it has been having difficulty securing competitiveness as Europe's power has increased significantly. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Korea only ranked 8th and has not won a medal since the 2008 Beijing Olympics. In this tournament as well, Korea is expected to have a difficult journey as it is in a group with powerful players such as Norway, Denmark, and Sweden. Another official said, “Actually, women’s handball also made it to the finals, but it is not a situation where it is easy to say ‘I will win a medal’ like in the past. “But since we are the only ones left, at least the sense of responsibility and mission is heightened,” he said. Handball commentator Lee Sang-eun, who won a silver medal at the 2004 Athens Olympics as the protagonist of the 'Woo Saeng-soon' myth, told 'News 1', "This situation can be said to be a crisis for Korean sports as a whole, but to put it bluntly, if you look at handball alone, it is an opportunity." He said. He said, “Even though handball has been an unpopular sport, it has been loved by fans thanks to its good performance in international competitions.” He added, “Since there are no other ball games (in the Olympics), handball will be able to attract relatively more attention. “If we show a good performance at that time, we will be able to gain popularity not only in the handball national team but also in the H-League,” he explained. At the same time, “If you look at Korean sports as a whole, it is clearly a crisis. However, if handball takes advantage of this opportunity and survives, other ball sports can also gain strength again. So, it is a crisis, but it is also an opportunity.” Meanwhile, the women's handball team will enter the Jincheon Athletes' Village on May 13 and begin its final preparations for the Olympics, the only ball sport to do so. Afterwards, the national team announces the final entry in mid-June and moves to Paris. 19가이드03