Although a similar ball game is mentioned even in the poems of antiquity, the official year of birth of handball is considered to be 1898. Then the team competition with almost modern rules was included in the physical education program of one of the schools in Denmark. The Danes are also credited with the very idea of playing with hands with a ball and a goal - the players of this country used it to keep fit in the winter.
The first appearance of handball in the Olympics program occurred at the last summer games before the start of World War II. Teams of eleven players played in Berlin, with the home team winning the tournament. This sport returned to the Olympic sports holidays only 36 years later. And again this happened in Germany - in Munich, men's teams competed, which, in accordance with modern rules, were made up of 7 players. Then the national team of Yugoslavia became the winner. Already at the next Olympics in Montreal, Canada, a women's handball tournament was added to the men's handball tournament. That year, the USSR teams turned out to be stronger than their rivals in both the women's and men's competition.
The Soviet women's team won the next Olympic tournament in 1980 in Moscow, and the Soviet Union teams won gold medals four times and became silver and bronze medalists once. This is the best indicator among all countries participating in the Olympic handball tournaments. After the end of the existence of the Soviet Union, the victorious tradition was first continued by the teams made up of players from the former republics of the USSR - they each won one gold and one bronze medal. Then, the national teams of Russia, which won one medal of each value, also performed quite successfully at the summer games.
Among other countries, Yugoslavia achieved the highest results, having won five medals of various denominations at the Olympiads. After the collapse of this state, one of the former republics continued its traditions - the national teams of Croatia added two more gold awards to the list. Both Russia and Croatia have every chance to replenish their piggy banks with medals of the XXX Summer Olympics in London - the men's and women's handball teams of these countries have received the right to participate in the 2012 tournaments.
