Handball at the Summer Olympics refers to two different sports. Field handball was introduced for men at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, but dropped after that. At the 1952 Olympics, field handball was a demonstration sport. (Indoor) handball was introduced for men at the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Women's handball competition was introduced at the 1976 Summer Olympics in Montreal.
Men's tournaments
Summary
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; text-align: center;"
|-
! rowspan="2" | Year
! rowspan="2" | Host
! rowspan="19" |
! colspan="3"| Gold medal match
! rowspan="19"|
! colspan="3"| Bronze medal match
! rowspan="19" |
! rowspan="2" | Teams
|-
! style="background-color: gold;"|Gold medalists
! Score
! style="background-color: silver;"|Silver medalists
! style="background-color: #cc9966;"|Bronze medalists
! Score
! 4th-place finishers
|-
| 1936<br />Details
| <br />Berlin
|
| Round robin
|
|
| Round robin
|
| 6
|-
| 1972<br />Details
| <br />Munich
|
| 21–16
|
|
| 19–16
|
| 16
|-
| 1976<br />Details
| <br />Montreal
|
| 19–15
|
|
| 21–18
|
| 12
|-
| 1980<br />Details
| <br />Moscow
|
| 23–22 (ET)
|
|
| 20–18
|
| 12
|-
| 1984<br />Details
| <br />Los Angeles
|
| 18–17
|
|
| 23–19
|
| 12
|-
| 1988<br />Details
| <br />Seoul
|
| 32–25
|
|
| 27–23
|
| 12
|-
| 1992<br />Details
| <br />Barcelona
| 30px|border|alt=|link=<br />Unified Team
| 22–20
|
|
| 24–20
|
| 12
|-
| 1996<br />Details
| <br />Atlanta
|
| 27–26
|
|
| 27–25
|
| 12
|-
| 2000<br />Details
| <br />Sydney
|
| 28–26
|
|
| 26–22
|
| 12
|-
| 2004<br />Details
| <br />Athens
|
| 26–24
|
|
| 28–26
|
| 12
|-
| 2008<br />Details
| <br />Beijing
|
| 28–23
|
|
| 35–29
|
| 12
|-
| 2012<br />Details
| <br />London
|
| 22–21
|
|
| 33–26
|
| 12
|-
| 2016<br />Details
| <br />Rio de Janeiro
|
| 28–26
|
|
| 31–25
|
| 12
|-
| 2020<br />Details
| <br />Tokyo
|
| 25–23
|
|
| 33–31
|
| 12
|-
| 2024<br >Details
| <br>Paris
|
| 39–26
|
|
| 23–22
|
| 12
|-
| 2028<br >Details
| <br>Los Angeles
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 12
|-
| 2032<br >Details
| <br>Brisbane
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 12
|}
Medal table
Participating nations
;Legend
- – Champions
- – Runners-up
- – Third place
- – Fourth place
- – Did not enter / Did not qualify
- – Hosts
- = – More than one team tied for that rank
- Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"
! width=170|Nation
! <br />1936!!<br />1972!!<br />1976!!<br />1980!!<br />1984!!<br />1988!!<br />1992!!<br />1996!!<br />2000!!<br />2004!!<br />2008!!<br />2012!!<br />2016!!<br />2020!!<br />2024!!<br />2028!!<br />2032!!Years
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||10th||12th||10th||•||10th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||10th||10th||12th||12th|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"| 12th||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || style="border:3px solid purple"|Q || 2
|-
|align=left|
| bgcolor=silver|2nd||•||•||•||•||• ||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||8th||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||12th||11th||•||10th||11th||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|7th||10th||•|| || || 6
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|11th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||• ||style="border:3px solid purple"|12th||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=6|Part of ||•||bgcolor=gold|1st||•||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||5th||•||9th|| || || 6
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||11th||•||•||•||•||11th||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 2
|-
|align=left|
|•||13th||8th||9th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||•||•||•||7th||6th||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=silver|2nd||bgcolor=gold|1st|| || || 9
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||11th||6th||7th||12th||10th||•||9th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||5th|| || || 8
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||6th||5th||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=gold|1st||style="border:3px solid purple"|8th|| || || 9
|-
|align=left|
|style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=gold|1st||colspan=5|See and ||10th||7th||5th||bgcolor=silver|2nd||9th||•||bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||6th||bgcolor=silver|2nd|| || || 9
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|12th||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|6th||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||8th||6th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||7th||•||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||10th|| || || 9
|-
|align=left|
|•||12th||•||•||6th||8th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||9th||bgcolor=silver|2nd||5th||•||•||•|| || || 7
|-
|align=left|
|•||11th||9th||•||10th||11th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|11th||11th|| || || 6
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||12th||•||•||•||12th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 2
|-
|align=left|
|•||9th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||7th||6th|| || || 3
|-
|align=left|
|•||10th||bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||7th||•||•||•||•||•||•||5th||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•|| || || 5
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||9th||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||8th||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
| 5th || bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||•|| 8th ||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 6
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=7|See || 5th || bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| 6th ||•||•||•||•|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=6|See ||colspan=4|See ||•|| 9th ||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=6|Part of ||•||•|| 8th || 11th ||•||•|| 6th ||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•|| 11th || style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=silver|2nd|| 6th ||•|| 9th || 8th || 8th || 11th ||•||•||•|| || || 7
|-
|align=left|
|•|| 15th ||•|| 5th || 8th || 9th || style="border:3px solid purple"| 5th || bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| 7th || bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| 7th ||•|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd|| || || 12
|-
|align=left|
|•|| 7th ||•||•|| 5th || 5th || bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=silver|2nd||•||•|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| 11th || 5th ||7th|| || || 10
|-
|align=left|
| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||•||•|| 8th || 7th ||•||•|| 8th ||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|•|| 16th || WD ||•||•||•||•||•|| 10th ||•||•|| 8th || 12th ||•||•|| || || 5
|-
|align=left|
| 6th || 14th || 10th ||•|| style="border:3px solid purple"| 9th || 12th ||•|| style="border:3px solid purple"| 9th ||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| style="border:3px solid purple"|Q || || 7
|-
|align="center" colspan=19|Discontinued nations
|-
|align=left|'
|•|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| 7th ||•||•|| 6th || 9th || colspan=10|See || 4
|-
|align=left|'
||| 4th ||•|| bgcolor=gold|1st||•|| 7th || colspan=11|See || 3
|-
|align=left|'
|colspan=6|See ||•||•|| bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||colspan=7|See || 1
|-
|align=left|'
|•|| 5th || bgcolor=gold|1st||style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=silver|2nd||•|| bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=gold|1st || colspan=10|See || 5
|-
|align=left|'
||| style="border:3px solid purple"|6th || bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•|| bgcolor=silver|2nd||•||colspan=11|See || 3
|-
|align=left|'
|•|| bgcolor=gold|1st|| 5th || 6th || bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=#cc9966|3rd||colspan=4|See ||colspan=7|See || 5
|-
! Total || 6 || 16 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 ||
|}
Women's tournaments
Summary
{| class="wikitable" style="font-size:90%; width: 100%; text-align: center;"
|-
!rowspan="2" style="width: 6%;"| Year
!rowspan="2" style="width: 12%;"| Host
! rowspan="17" style="width: 1%; background-color: #ffffff;" |
!colspan="3"| Gold medal match
!rowspan="17" style="width: 1%; background-color: #ffffff;"|
!colspan="3"| Bronze medal match
! rowspan="17" style="width: 1%; background-color: #ffffff;" |
!rowspan="2" style="width: 5%;"| Teams
|-
!style="width: 14%; background-color: gold;"|Gold medalists
!style="width: 9%;"|Score
!style="width: 14%; background-color: silver;"|Silver medalists
!style="width: 14%; background-color: #cc9966;"|Bronze medalists
!style="width: 9%;"|Score
!style="width: 14%;"|4th-place finishers
|-
| 1976<br />Details
| <br />Montreal
|
| Round robin
|
|
| Round robin
|
| 6
|-
| 1980<br />Details
| <br />Moscow
|
| Round robin
|
|
| Round robin
|
| 6
|-
| 1984<br />Details
| <br />Los Angeles
|
| Round robin
|
|
| Round robin
|
| 6
|-
| 1988<br />Details
| <br />Seoul
|
| Round robin
|
|
| Round robin
|
| 8
|-
| 1992<br />Details
| <br />Barcelona
|
| 28–21
|
| 30px|border|alt=|link=<br /> Unified Team
| 24–20
|
| 8
|-
| 1996<br />Details
| <br />Atlanta
|
| 37–33 (ET)
|
|
| 20–18
|
| 8
|-
| 2000<br />Details
| <br />Sydney
|
| 31–27
|
|
| 22–21
|
| 10
|-
| 2004<br />Details
| <br />Athens
|
| 34–34 (ET, pen: 4–2)
|
|
| 21–18
|
| 10
|-
| 2008<br />Details
| <br />Beijing
|
| 34–27
|
|
| 33–28
|
| 12
|-
| 2012<br />Details
| <br />London
|
| 26–23
|
|
| 31–29
|
| 12
|-
| 2016<br />Details
| <br />Rio de Janeiro
|
| 22–19
|
|
| 36–26
|
| 12
|-
| 2020<br />Details
| <br/>Tokyo
|
|30–25
|
|
|36–19
|
| 12
|-
| 2024<br />Details
| <br>Paris
|
|29–21
|
|
|30–25
|
| 12
|-
| 2028<br >Details
| <br>Los Angeles
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 12
|-
| 2032<br >Details
| <br>Brisbane
|
|
|
|
|
|
| 12
|}
Medal table
Participating nations
;Legend
- – Champions
- – Runners-up
- – Third place
- – Fourth place
- – Did not enter / Did not qualify
- – Hosts
- = – More than one team tied for that rank
- Q – Qualified for forthcoming tournament
{| class="wikitable sortable" style="text-align:center; font-size:90%"
! width=170|Nation
! <br />1976!!<br />1980!!<br />1984!!<br />1988!!<br />1992!!<br />1996!!<br />2000!!<br />2004!!<br />2008!!<br />2012!!<br />2016!!<br />2020!!<br />2024!!<br />2028!!<br />2032!!Years
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||7th||9th||9th||12th||10th||8th||10th||9th|| || || 8
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||12th||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"| 10th||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || style="border:3px solid purple"|Q || 2
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||6th||•||5th||•||5th||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 3
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||8th||7th||9th||6th|| style="border:3px solid purple"| 5th || 11th ||7th|| || || 7
|-
|align=left|
| style="border:3px solid purple"|6th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||6th||•|| 5th||•||8th||style="border:3px solid purple"|6th||•||•||•||•|| || || 5
|-
|align=left|
|•||6th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=4|Part of ||•||•||•||•||•||7th||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=gold|1st||•||9th||•||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd|| || || 5
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||6th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||5th|| 5th||bgcolor=silver|2nd||bgcolor=gold|1st|| style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=silver|2nd || || || 7
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=4|See and ||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||6th||•||•||11th||•||•||•||8th|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|12th||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"| 10th||•||•||•||•||•|| || ||1
|-
|align=left|
| bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=silver|2nd||5th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||7th||6th|| || || 8
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||8th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|5th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"| 12th||•|| || || 2
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=5|Part of ||•||•||•||10th||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=4|Part of ||colspan=4|Part of ||•||bgcolor=silver|2nd||11th||6th||•|| || || 3
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||5th||5th|| || || 3
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||8th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=silver|2nd||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||•||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd|| bgcolor=gold|1st|| || || 9
|-
|align=left|
|bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||•||•||•||•||7th||•||7th||•||9th||•||•|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=5|See ||•||•||•||bgcolor=silver|2nd||8th||bgcolor=gold|1st||bgcolor=silver|2nd||•|| || || 4
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=4|Part of ||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||11th|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=silver|2nd||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th|| 10th || 8th || 10th || || || 11
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|7th||•||•||6th||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||6th||9th||12th|| || || 6
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||•||•||•||•||•||•||8th||11th||7th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th|| || || 5
|-
|align=left|
|colspan=5|Part of ||•||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||•||•||•||•||•|| || || 1
|-
|align=left|
|•||•||style="border:3px solid purple"|5th||7th||6th||style="border:3px solid purple"|8th||•||•||•||•||•||•||•|| style="border:3px solid purple"|Q || || 5
|-
| colspan="17" align="center" |Discontinued nations
|-
|align=left|'
|•||5th||•||5th||•||colspan=10|See || 2
|-
|align=left|'
| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||•||•||colspan=11|See ||2
|-
|align=left|'
|bgcolor=gold|1st||style="border:3px solid purple" bgcolor=gold|1st||•||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||bgcolor=cc9966|3rd||colspan=10|See || 4
|-
|align=left|'
|•||•||bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||•||colspan=11|See ||1
|-
|align=left|'
|•|| bgcolor=silver|2nd|| bgcolor=gold|1st|| bgcolor=#9acdff|4th||colspan=4|See ||colspan=7|See || 3
|-
! Total || 6 || 6 || 6 || 8 || 8 || 8 || 10 || 10 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 || 12 ||
|}
Overall medal table
The table below include teams under the name they had at the time. When the Soviet Union broke up in 1991 they played one last tournament in 1992 as the Unified Team, which they won for the men and got a bronze medal for the women. Russia is a break-away from the Soviet Union and ROC is Russia under another name. Croatia is a break-away from Yugoslavia, which ceased to exist in 1992. German Democratic Republic and West Germany were created after World War II. They were united into Germany in 1990.
See also
- List of Olympic venues in handball
Notes
References and notes
External links
- Men's results
- Women's results