Handball - Team France

Nickname
Les Femmes de Defis

General
The French women's team qualified for Tokyo 2020 by winning gold at the 2018 European Championship, where they were hosts. They defeated 2016 Olympic champions the Russian Federation 24-21 in the final in Paris, gaining retribution for an opening group match defeat at the hands of the Russians, to claim the team's first continental title.

France were silver medallists at the 2016 Olympic Games, losing the final in Rio to their Russian rivals. The silver in Rio was the team's first medal at the Games since the team made their Olympic debut in 2000 in Sydney. Prior to Rio, the closest France had come to the podium was a fourth-place finish in 2004 in Athens, where they lost to Ukraine in the bronze medal match. The French team were knocked out at the quarterfinal stage at both Beijing 2008 and London 2012.

France's women were also world champions at the time of their first European title in 2018, having overcome Norway 23-21 in the final of the 2017 World Championship in Germany. This was France's second world title, with their first coming in 2003 in a 32-29 victory over Hungary in the final. The team were world championship silver medallists in 1999, 2009, and 2011, but could only manage a 13th-place finish at the most recent edition of the tournament in 2019.

At the 2020 European Championship, the French team went unbeaten in a group containing Denmark, Montenegro, and Slovenia. A 30-19 win in the semifinals over Croatia set them up for a final against Norway, but the Scandinavian team were able to win a tight match 22-20 to claim gold.