The women's handball tournament at the 2012 Olympic Games in London was held from 28 July to 11 August. The preliminaries and quarter-finals were held at the Copper Box and the semi-finals and final took place at the Basketball Arena.
Twelve nations were represented in the tournament. The four best teams from each group advanced to a knockout round, while the 5th and 6th teams in each group were classified 9th–12th by the results of their group matches. Unlike in previous Olympics, there was no placement matches involving the losing teams of the quarterfinals.
Norway won the tournament and gold medal, beating Montenegro in the final. Montenegro's silver was the first Olympic medal for the country as an independent nation, and the country's only medal at the 2012 Games. Spain won the bronze medal.
Qualification
Date Venue Vacancies Qualified Host nation 1 2010 European Championship 7–19 December 2010 1 † Asian Olympic Qualification Tournament 2011 12–21 October 2011 1 2011 Pan American Games 15–23 October 2011 1 2011 World Championship 2–18 December 2011 1 2012 African Championship 11–20 January 2012 1 2012 IHF Qualification Tournament #1 25–27 May 2012 2 2012 IHF Qualification Tournament #2 25–27 May 2012 2 2012 IHF Qualification Tournament #3 25–27 May 2012 2 Total 12
† Sweden qualified as 2010 European Championship runner up because Norway qualified as the 2011 World Champion.
Seeding Before the draw the IHF seeded the teams in six pots. The draw for the groups was held on 30 May 2012.
Pot 1 Pot 2 Pot 3 Pot 4 Pot 5 Pot 6
Rosters
Group stage
Group A
Group B
Knockout stage
Quarter-finals
Semi-finals
Bronze medal match
Gold medal match
Rankings and statistics
Final ranking
Rank Team Points GD 11 +9 9 +13 11 +9 4 9 –1 5 9 +21 6 Brazil finish first in Group A by beating Croatia without see the goals difference between them 8 +13 7 8 +27 8 7 +25 9 2 –8 10 2 –10 11 0 –23 12 0 –75
All-star team Goalkeeper: Kari Aalvik Grimsbo Left wing: Jo Hyo-bi Left back: Bojana Popović Central back: Marta Mangué Right back: Katarina Bulatović Right wing: Alexandra do Nascimento Line player: Heidi Løke Chosen by team officials and IHF experts: IHF.info
Top goalkeepers RankNameTeam%SavesShots 1 Kari Aalvik Grimsbø 42% 67 161 2 Cléopatre Darleux 41% 18 44 3 Amandine Leynaud 38% 61 161 4 Silvia Navarro 37% 96 258 Mayssa Pessoa 37% 21 57 Anna Sedoykina 37% 34 92 7 Ivana Jelčić 35% 62 177 8 Sonja Barjaktarović 34% 55 161 Ju Hui 34% 99 292 10 Karin Mortensen 33% 27 82
Top goalscorers RankNameTeamGoalsShots% 1 Katarina Bulatović 53 93 57% 2 Bojana Popović 46 77 60% 3 Ryu Eun-hee 43 92 47% 4 Alexandra do Nascimento 37 55 67% 5 Marta Mangué 34 67 51% 6 Nely Carla Alberto 33 58 57% Linn Jørum Sulland 33 66 50% 8 Jo Hyo-bi 32 52 62% Ann Grete Nørgaard 32 52 62% 10 Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth Koren 31 39 79% Andrea Penezić 31 55 56% Jovanka Radičević 31 51 61%
References