IHF Women’s History: Best Teams and Past Winners

The Women’s World Handball Championship is a tournament organised by the International Handball Federation (IHF) which is held every two years. It sees the biggest handballing nations and the most talented handball stars come together to fight it out for gold, silver and bronze medals at an event hosted by one of the competing countries.

Let’s take a look into the history of the IHF Women’s World Championships!

Partnership with Betsson

Ahead of the 2023 tournament hosted across Denmark, Norway and Sweden, Betsson partnered with the IHF Women’s World Championship as the official sponsor of the tournament. This continued Betsson’s unwavering commitment to champion female sport at the very highest levels.

Robin Olenius, PR Manager for Betsson Group, said: “This sponsorship aligns with our commitment to promoting and supporting women’s sports. We hope that through our support of the tournament and our global presence, we will help to increase the excitement globally.”

Dr. Hassan Moustafa, President of IHF, commented: “We are happy to welcome Betsson to the 26th IHF Women’s World Championship. Together, we set a clear aim – to excite!”

What is the format of the IHF Women’s World Championships?

In its current 32-team format, the IHF separate the teams into four pots, with the strongest teams going into pot one. Eight groups of four are then drawn from those pots, creating the fixtures for the first group stage. The top three teams in each group progress to the Main Round, while the bottom in each group gets put into the President’s Cup. In the Main Round, the top three teams from Group A are put into a new group with the top three teams of Group B, and so on. Only the top two teams in each of the four Main Round groups progress to the knockout quarter-finals. From here, it is a straight knockout all the way to the final, while a third-place play-off decides who takes home the bronze medal.

Women’s Handball World Championship History

The IHF first created the Women’s World Championships back in 1957 when just nine teams competed for the gold medal. The eventual winners, Czechoslovakia, were joined by Hungary (silver), Yugoslavia (who hosted and won bronze), West Germany, Denmark, Austria, Poland, Sweden, and Romania. Fast forward to 2023 and up to 32 nations are allowed to compete across two exciting group stages and knockout matches.

Only one team has appeared in every single Championships to date, and that is Romania. However, they have been joined by 55 other teams across the 26 iterations of the tournament, making it a truly global sporting event. The IHF Women’s World Championships have also been hosted across three continents, from Japan to Hungary to Brazil.

Who has won the most IHF gold medals?

There have only ever been 14 nations to win gold at the IHF Women’s World Championships, with Norway and Russia leading the way with four victories each. The former are seen as the most successful team in the history of the competition though, as they also have four silver medals and three bronzes to their name – more than double the medals of Russia.

The Soviet Union and East Germany both have three gold each, followed by France on two. Hungary, Yugoslavia, Denmark, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Netherlands, Germany, South Korea, and Brazil make up the list of one-time winners at the Women’s Handball World Championships.

The gold medal has been won by a European handball nation every year but two – with South Korea becoming the first-ever Asian winners in 1995, while Brazil became the first South American gold medallists in 2013.  

Hungary have managed to win an impressive four silvers and four bronze medals, but only have one gold to their name.

The most recent champions have been Norway in 2021, Netherlands in 2019, and France in 2017, and the upcoming tournament is the first time the Women’s World Championships have been co-hosted by three different competing nations.

IHF Handball best women’s players in history

In 1999, the IHF created a Best Player award for each tournament, with a couple of exceptions when the award was not handed out. Winners of the prestigious prize include Ausra Fridrikas (1999 for Austria), Valerie Nicolas (2003 for France), Lyudmila Postnova (2005 and 2009 for Russia), Eduarda Amorim (2013 for Brazil), Cristina Neagu (2015 for Romania), and Estavana Polman (2019 for Netherlands). Well done to Lyudmila Postnova for being the only female handballer to ever win the award twice!

Who has scored the most goals in the IHF Women’s World Championship?

In the first-ever IHF Women’s Handball World Championship, Pavia Bartakova was the top scorer with just 11 goals. Back then, there were only nine teams and much fewer games played across the tournament. However, over the years, the expansion of the World Championships has led to plenty more goals for fans to enjoy. In fact, since the 1982 tournament, the top goal scorer has always claimed at least 50 goals.

The most goals ever recorded by one player in a single Championship came in 2003 from the hands of Hungarian Bojana Radulovic. Unfortunately, even her 97 goals across the tournament could not prevent Hungary from losing 32-29 in the final to France, but at least Radulovic got a silver medal for her incredible efforts.

For the past two tournaments, the top-scoring tally has sat at 71 goals, with Netherlands’ Lois Abbingh and Sweden’s Nathalie Hagman achieving that particular feat. Other notable efforts include Ausra Fridrikas’ 87 goals in 2001 for Austria and Grit Jurack’s 85 for Germany in 2007. But will anyone ever be able to break the magic 100 mark?

IHF Women’s World Championships biggest wins

There have been some big wins in more than 50 years of IHF Women’s World Championships, and perhaps it is time to look away if you’re an Australian fan. In the list of the 28 biggest winning margins in history, Australia appear on the losing side 11 different times. The biggest winning margin in any single match came back in 2005 when a potent Hungary side thrashed the Aussies 57-9, making for a 48-goal difference. In 2021, the Netherlands also defeated Kazakhstan by 46 goals in a 61-15 victory.

IHF Women’s 2023 Odds and Predictions

The latest chapter in the IHF Women’s World Championships history book is about to be written as 32 teams arrive for the 2023 tournament. The current Betsson outright odds for the IHF Women’s World Championships have Norway down as the bookie’s favourites at 2.10. France come in second at 4.30, while Denmark 6.00, Netherlands (7.00), and Sweden (10.00) form the chasing pack. Hungary could be a good outsider at 21.00, while Germany (26.00), Spain (31.00), and Romania (34.00) have a good handballing pedigree. If you’re feeling lucky, then the biggest 2023 outsiders are Greenland at 3001.00, followed by Paraguay (2001.00), Cameroon, Iran, China, and Chile (all 501.00).

Betsson is also offering a market if you want to predict which teams will reach the final and fight it out for the gold medal in Herning on December 17:

• Norway at 1.20
• France at 1.95
• Denmark at 2.30
• Netherlands at 3.50
• Sweden at 4.50
• Hungary at 10.50
• Germany at 13.00
• Spain at 17.00
• Romania at 17.00
• Brazil at 25.00