Handball - Team Norway

General
Norway won their spot at Tokyo 2020 via the Women's Olympic Qualification Tournaments held in March 2021. The team emerged from an incredibly tight three-way contest in Tournament 3 of the event, edging out Romania to join Montenegro in securing a place for Tokyo. The three teams each won one game at the tournament, with Norway and Montenegro finishing in the qualification spots thanks to better goal difference than the Romanians.

Norway have finished on the podium in their last four appearances of the Olympic Games, and are looking for a seventh Olympic medal in total at Tokyo 2020. The team won gold in 2008 and 2012, claimed silver medals in 1988 and 1992, and finished with bronze in 2000 and 2016. They placed fourth at Atlanta 1996 and did not compete at the 2004 Games in Athens. At Rio 2016, Norway were beaten 38-37 by the Russian Federation in an overtime semifinal but were then able to overcome the Netherlands in the bronze medal match.

The Norwegians were ranked fourth at the 2019 World Championship in Japan. They finished behind the Netherlands in the preliminary stage but then won three straight matches in the main round to book a semifinal against Spain, which they lost 28-22. In the third-place playoff, the Russian Federation emerged as 33-28 winners. Norway's fourth-place finish in 2019 was only the second time in the past seven editions of the world championship they have missed the podium. They were gold medallists in 2011 and 2015, runners-up in 2007 and 2017, and finished third in 2009.

Norway are the most successful side at the European championship by far, winning gold at eight of the 14 tournaments that have taken place since 1994. The team secured their most recent title in 2020 in Denmark, where they were untouchable throughout the competition, winning all six of their matches through the preliminary stage and the main round. They then defeated Denmark 27-24 in the last four, and beat France 22-20 in the final.