One of the sports that'll be running for almost the entire length of the 2024 Summer Olympics is the Olympic handball competition, which began on Thursday, July 25 (ahead of the Opening Ceremony) and will run until the final day of Sunday, August 11.
US: Peacock | NBC
UK: iPlayer | BBC (free with license fee) | Discovery Plus
AU: Stan Sports | 9Now (free)
Watch abroad with a VPN
Sports fans in Australia or the UK will be able to watch the Olympic handball matches for free on 9Now or iPlayer, which is certainly a real treat. But never fear if you're away from home during the tournament, because you can watch the Olympic games from anywhere with a VPN.
That early start makes the handball competition second only to Olympic football and rugby sevens in how early it starts, joining with Olympic archery in starting the day prior to the 'official' start to the Games.
Handball has been competed at the Olympic games for over 50 years, with indoor handball first played at the 1972 Olympics. Prior to that field handball was played once, in 1936, but never caught on.
Once again, two Olympic handball events are taking place at the 2024 Olympics: a men's and a women's tournament, with different team line-ups in each. For each event, 12 teams are in contention.
Like many team games, the Olympic handball tournament will begin with a group stage, running for the majority of the Olympic fortnight, and it'll end with finals from Tuesday, August 6.
If you're interested in watching the Olympic handball tournament at the 2024 Olympic games, here's how to do so, including more information on what's happening at the bottom of this article.
How to watch the Olympic handball in the US
In the US, broadcast rights to the Olympic handball (and all of the other events) falls to NBC. While the same-titled channel will probably show some Olympic coverage throughout the days and nights, your best way to watch handball in its entirety would be using Peacock.
Peacock is NBCUniversal's online streaming service, and the digital home for all its movies, TV shows and other videos it broadcasts. That, of course, includes the Olympics.
You'll be able to stream live feeds of all the Olympic sports using Peacock, including handball, with extra settings to let you set up alerts and watch multiple sports at once.
Peacock's basic tier costs $5.99 per month, but for $11.99 you can get its more premium tier which allows for ad-free streaming.
How to watch the Olympic handball in the UK
It's the BBC who has broadcast rights to the 2024 Olympic games in the UK, so you'll have to use its channels and streaming site to watch the tournament. Instead of letting you stream from each individual game, the BBC is just offering two live feeds that'll swap between different sports, so you might miss quite a bit of handball action.
Its first feed is on broadcast TV: the Beeb will show live coverage of lots of the sports between BBC One and BBC Two, and it's promising to show 250 hours of live events between the two TV channels.
Then, there's Olympics Extra, a live stream which will be hosted on iPlayer. This will show live sports that the main channel isn't. Since iPlayer lets you stream live TV channels too, it'll be a handy way to jump between both streams if you're online.
Thankfully, there is another option that'll let you see more handball. Discovery Plus is set to show a lot more of the Olympic games, and while it usually costs £6.99 per month for its Standard plan, a temporary deal lets you sign up for £3.99 monthly until the end of the year.
How to watch the Olympic handball in Australia
It's Channel Nine that has broadcast rights to the Olympic games in Australia, so you won't have to pay for a pricey streaming service to watch the Olympic handball.
Some coverage is expected on the Nine TV channels, but your best bet for catching the handball matches will be to head over to the broadcaster's streaming service 9Now.
9Now is expected to host live streams of all the Olympic sports, so you can see as much handball as you'd like.
How to watch the Olympic handball everywhere else
If you're going to be away from your normal TV setup but still want to watch the Olympic handball, you might run into some problems. Thankfully, you can solve this exact issue with a Virtual Private Network (VPN).
A VPN lets you change your IP address to that of the area of what you want to watch, meaning you can tune in to your favorite sports, shows or other content even if you're not there. Our favorite is NordVPN, which is the No. 1-rated VPN in the world right now according to our sister site, TechRadar.
How to use a VPN to watch any stream
- Download the app at NordVPN
- Choose the location of the streaming service you want to watch (UK, US, etc)
- Navigate to the streaming service and start watching!
Olympic handball schedule
Here's the full schedule of Olympic handball matches. We won't write down every match as that would take forever, just when each stage of the tournament will take place.
Thursday, July 25
- Women's Group A first match
- Women's Group B first match
Saturday, July 27
- Men's Group A first match
- Men's Group B first match
Sunday, July 28
- Women's Group A second match
- Women's Group B second match
Monday, July 29
- Men's Group A second match
- Men's Group B second match
Tuesday, July 30
- Women's Group A third match
- Women's Group B third match
Wednesday, July 31
- Men's Group A third match
- Men's Group B third match
Thursday, August 1
- Women's Group A fourth match
- Women's Group B fourth match
Friday, August 2
- Men's Group A fourth match
- Men's Group B fourth match
Saturday, August 3
- Women's Group A fifth match
- Women's Group B fifth match
Sunday, August 4
- Men's Group A fifth match
- Men's Group B fifth match
Tuesday, August 6
- Women's Quarterfinal matches
Wednesday, August 7
- Men's Quarterfinal matches
Thursday, August 8
- Women's Semifinal matches
Friday, August 9
- Men's Semifinal matches
Saturday, August 10
- Women's Bronze medal match
- Women's Final
Sunday, August 11
- Men's Bronze medal match
- Men's Final
All you need to know about the Olympic handball tournament
When does the Olympic handball tournament begin?
The very first Olympic handball matches begin on Thursday, July 25, and this is for the women's tournament. Men's matches begin two days later on Saturday, July 27.
The women's start date is notable because it's one day prior to the official start of the Olympic games. The Opening Ceremony takes place on Friday, July 26, though some sports begin earlier.
Which teams are playing in the Olympic handball tournament?
Twelve men's teams and twelve women's teams are playing in the Olympic handball tournament. There are some cross-overs. Here they are:
Men
- Argentina
- Croatia
- Denmark
- Egypt
- France
- Germany
- Hungary
- Japan
- Norway
- Slovenia
- Spain
- Sweden
Women
- Angola
- Brazil
- Denmark
- France
- Hungary
- Netherlands
- Norway
- Germany
- Slovenia
- South Korea
- Spain
- Sweden
Where does the Olympic handball tournament take place
Two different venues will host the Olympic handball matches.
Group stage matches will take place at the Paris Expo Porte de Versailles, which is an exhibition center in Paris. Matches will take place at Arena 6 with weightlifting, volleyball and table tennis taking place in the venue at the same time.
For the quarter-finals and beyond, the action will shift to the Stade Pierre-Mauroy, a large sporting arena in Villeneuve-d'Ascq, in the far north of France, just on the border with Belgium. This arena will also host basketball matches during the Olympics.
