While the international handball community is looking towards Poland, where the 28th Adult Men’s World Championship will begin on January 11, the IHF moved forward with the final confirmation of the two venues for Paris 2024. The thing is that 2023 is approaching and there are only 21 months left before the Olympic fire ignites in the French capital, where the locals defend the Olympic gold in both men’s and women’s handball.
The decision that has been taken is for handball to be one of the sports that comes out of Paris. Although it is an intention that was made public at the beginning of the year, Stade Pierre-Mauroy was only made official last Tuesday as the home for the final phase, a venue that will almost certainly alternate with basketball, since FIBA approved the stadium after many discussions and “with reservations”. The topic had to be closed quickly as public registration for the ticket drawing is now open.
The Stade Pierre Mauroy is a multi-purpose stadium with a retractable roof in Lille with capacity for 26,000 spectators. Inaugurated in August 2012, it is the home of Lille OSC, champion of the French football league in the 2020/21 season. Even so, it has a long history of hosting other sports such as basketball, tennis and rugby. It also hosted three games at the 2017 Men’s World Championship, when it set a record of 28,010 spectators in the quarterfinals between France and Sweden. As a city, Lille is one of the five largest in France and is located 220 kilometers north of Paris, very close to the border with Belgium.
The initial phase, meanwhile, will be in Paris, exactly at the South Paris Arena 6, part of a complex built in 1923 to host the Capital City’s Trade Fair. This property is one of the busiest exhibition and convention centers in Europe. On its site of 35 hectares and 228,000 square meters between the rooms and the eight pavilions. This venue will also host weightlifting and, for handball, is expected to have a capacity of 7,300 to 7,800 spectators.
Men’s handball has been on the Olympic program uninterrupted since Munich 1972, while women’s handball will appear in Paris 2024 for the 13th consecutive time.
The peculiarity of the next Olympic tournament in this sport is that it will begin, for the first time, one day before the opening ceremony.
As the host nation, France’s men’s and women’s teams have qualified automatically and, in addition, will defend the title won in both branches in Tokyo 2020. The Norwegian women’s national team is the only one to have secured their place in Paris 2024 so far with the victory in the last European Championship, while the champion of the next Men’s World Championship will also get a place and can now dream of hanging an Olympic medal on its chest at the Stade Pierre Mauroy in Lille.
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