A short overview of our country's handball participation in the Summer Olympics
Handball was first introduced as an Olympic event in 1936, at the Berlin Olympics, with 11 field players. It was removed up until the 1972 Munich Olympics, when handball was reintroduced with 7 field players, but only in the men's competition. In 1976 women's handball became an Olympic event.
For Romania, the top performances came in the men's competition. In 1972, our handballers scooped bronze. Romania at the time grabbed 3 wins in the first group stage. In the main group stage, however, Romania lost to Yugoslavia and thus only qualified to the bronze final, where it defeated the German Democratic Republic 19-16. The competition's top scorer that year was Gheorghe Gruia, with 37 goals.
In 1976, in Montreal, Romania reached the final. The tournament consisted of two groups, Romania winning one of them after defeating Hungary, the United States and Poland. It drew against Czechoslovakia, and winning the group got Romania to the grand final, where it lost 19-15 to the USSR, thus winning silver. Ştefan Birtalan was the topscorer of the competition with 32 goals, alongside Bent Larsen of Denmark.
In Moscow, in 1980, the Romanian men's team walked home with bronze. Romania finished Group B in second place, losing only to the USSR, which it however knocked out later 22-19. In the bronze final, Romania won 20-18 against Hungary.
Expectations were running high for Romania at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, considering countries from the pro-Soviet bloc decided to boycott the competition. Romania was unfortunate however to be drawn in Group A, where they were outperformed by Yugoslavia 18-19, thus missing their chance to play the big final. In the bronze final, Romania defeated Denmark 23-19. Since then, Romania managed to qualify to the Olympic Games only once, in 1992 in Barcelona.
In the women's competition, Romania's first presence came in in 1976 in Canada. A 24-year break followed, until the Sydney Olympics of 2000. Our handballers managed to qualify to the 2008 and 2016 editions, but never managed to get past the quarterfinals.
(Translated by V. Palcu)
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