In order to increase audiences and bring young audiences closer to the Olympic movement, new sports such as skateboarding, climbing and breaking have been incorporated in recent years, which will debut in Paris 2024 but will not be part of the program in Los Angeles 2028. At the same time, in order to give more dynamics to the game and more spectacle to the spectator, progress has also been made in alternatives to traditional sports such as rugby, which found its place in the sevens in the Olympic Games.
A sport that complies with these premises and that has been growing stronger since its “explosion” at the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympic Games is beach handball, which will be present in Paris 2024 as an exhibition in a first step in search of officially joining the Olympic program.
The International Handball Federation (IHF) announced the ‘IHF Beach Handball Showcase’, which will feature the best in the world from July 27 to 29 at the headquarters of the French Handball Federation (FFHB), the ‘Maison du Handball’, in Créteil.
“The exhibition will go down in the history of beach handball. After their debut at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, this is another step towards their presence at the Olympic Games as an official sport in the future. Who would have imagined that 30 years ago when we started playing on a small Italian island?” Giampiero Masi, president of the IHF Beach Handball Working Group, was thrilled.
The last exhibition sport at the Olympic Games was Wushu in Beijing 2008, chess was present in Sydney 2000 and in Barcelona 1992, roller hockey, Basque ball and taekwondo appeared, which managed to join the Olympic program from Sydney. Something similar happened with badminton, on display in Munich 1972 and Seoul 1988 and officially from Barcelona. Beach handball wants to go that way.
“Beach handball already plays a very important role in the Olympic movement. It’s a great format of sport, a great discipline. It is easy to organize and has a very strong and growing popularity among young people. It has a very bright future,” said Kit McConnell, Sporting Director of the International Olympic Committee.
How beach handball will be played at the Olympics
32 men and 32 women will participate in the exhibition and 18 countries will be represented: Germany, Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, Spain, the United States of America, France, Greece, Hungary, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, the People’s Republic of China and Uruguay.
Four teams will be formed in each competition: three will be from different national teams and the fourth will be made up of players from France. The chosen coaches are Leticia Brunati (she led Argentina’s women’s champion team in Buenos Aires 2018), Mladen Paradzik (Croatia), Khaled Hassan (Qatar), Maria Karantoni (Greece), Tamas Neukum (Hungary) and Alexander Novakovic (Germany).
List of players who will compete on All-Star teams
Women
Magdalini KEPESIDOU (Greece)
Elisabeth HAMMERSTAD (Norway)
KRISTENSEN Line (Denmark)
Patricia SCHEPPA (Brazil)
Gisella BONOMI (Argentina)
Renata CSIKI (Hungary)
Rianne MOL (Netherlands)
Jimena LAGUNA (Spain)
Patricia ENCINAS (Spain)
Ji Juan DU (People’s Republic of China)
Fiorella CORIMBERTO (Argentina)
Meike KRUIJER (Netherlands)
Isabel KATTNER (Germany)
Carolina PIRES MILITAO (Brazil)
Renata DA SILVA SANTIAGO (Brazil)
Cristiana MORGADO (Portugal)
Ana Maria URSU (Portugal)
Lucie Marie KRETZSCHMAR (Germany)
Nathalie SOUZA GUEDES DE SENA (Brazil)
Christine MANSOUR (United States of America)
Asunción BATISTA (Spain)
Lina LARSEN (Denmark)
Emese TOTH (Hungary)
Isabel BARNARD (Netherlands)
Men
Mohsen AL YAFAEI (Qatar)
Peter HAJDU (Hungary)
Mohammed ZAKY HASSAN (Qatar)
Jesús LUIZ DOMINGO (Spain)
Gil Vicente DE PAES PIRES (Brazil)
Santiago RODRIGUEZ (Uruguay)
Severin HENRICH (Germany)
Ivan DUMENCIC (Croatia)
Moritz EBERT (Germany)
Ivan JURIC (Croatia)
Ebiye UDO-UDOMA (United States of America)
Hani KAKHI (Qatar)
Attila KUN (Hungary)
Bruno CARLOS DE OLIVEIRA (Brazil)
Elji TOUR JABBY (Spain)
Nahuel PEREZ (Argentina)
Laszlo NAHAJ (Hungary)
Lukasz NIEDZIELAK (Poland)
Diogo FERREIRA (Portugal)
Lucian BURA (Croatia)
Andrew (Drew) DONLIN (United States of America)
Martin VILSTRUP ANDERSEN (Denmark)
Thiago DE OLIVEIRA BARCELOS (Brazil)
Ali HEIDARIAN (Islamic Republic of Iran)
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