Why doesn’t the USA have a handball team at the 2024 Olympics in Paris?
Handball is one of the more than 30 sports that are represented in the Olympics. But why isn’t Team USA competing?
The 2024 Olympic Games have entered the second week of competition, which means quite a few tournaments will be decided during the following days.
One of them is handball, as the women’s and men’s group stage games already ended. The quarterfinal matchups are being played today and tomorrow to decide which four teams will collide in the semifinals in both categories.
France, Germany, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark were some of the main favorites to get far in the handball event, as many of their players compete in the best European teams and leagues. They all qualified for the knockout stages in the women’s and men’s tournaments.
While some of these European sides are often expected to excel in the Olympics and World Cup events, none of the world’s biggest nations seem to do well in these global events, and the United States is one of them.
Why doesn’t Team USA have a handball team at the 2024 Olympics?
The Americans are the most accomplished nation in the Olympic Games history. They excelled in the 2021 Summer Games in Tokyo and are fighting to do the same in Paris.
However, although the country has top athletes in most of the sports that take place in the event, there are no US representatives in the handball tournament, and this isn’t something new.
The last time the US competed in the sport in a Summer Games was in the 1996 Olympics, in Atlanta. The reason why they were present was because they were hosting the event. But why isn’t there any representation in handball in the French capital? Since there’s no solid handball background in the States, the Americans didn’t qualify for the field in Paris in either the men’s or women’s competition.
The lack of handball tradition goes beyond the US, as China and South Korea are the only non-European countries to ever win an Olympic medal.