The 2023

IHF World Women's Handball Championship The IHF Women's Handball World Championship has been organized by the International Handball Federation since 1957. European teams have won every time except 1995 where South Korea South Korea, officially the Republic of Korea (ROK), is ...

was the 26th edition of the championship, organised by the

International Handball Federation The International Handball Federation (IHF) is the administrative and controlling body for handball and beach handball. IHF is responsible for the organisation of handball's major international tournaments, notably the IHF World Men's Handball C ...

(IHF) from 29 November to 17 December 2023 and jointly hosted by

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

Norway Norway, officially the Kingdom of Norway, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. The remote Arctic island of Jan Mayen and the archipelago of Svalbard also form part of the Kingdom of ...

, and

Sweden Sweden, formally the Kingdom of Sweden, is a Nordic countries, Nordic country located on the Scandinavian Peninsula in Northern Europe. It borders Norway to the west and north, and Finland to the east. At , Sweden is the largest Nordic count ...

. It was the third time in handball history that the championship is jointly hosted, the first in Sweden, and also the first to be played in three countries. France won their third title after a finals win over Norway. The bronze medal went to Denmark with a win over Sweden.

Bidding process

After Russia's withdrawal, Denmark/Norway/Sweden and Hungary entered their bids for hosting the tournament, which was awarded to the three

Nordic countries The Nordic countries (also known as the Nordics or ''Norden''; ) are a geographical and cultural region in Northern Europe, as well as the Arctic Ocean, Arctic and Atlantic Ocean, North Atlantic oceans. It includes the sovereign states of Denm ...

IHF Council The IHF Council is an institution of International Handball Federation (the governing body of handball and beach handball). It is the main decision-making body of the organization in the intervals of IHF Congress. Its members are elected by the I ...

at its meeting held in

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, largest city of France. With an estimated population of 2,048,472 residents in January 2025 in an area of more than , Paris is the List of ci ...

France France, officially the French Republic, is a country located primarily in Western Europe. Overseas France, Its overseas regions and territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the Atlantic Ocean#North Atlan ...

on 28 January 2017.

Venues

The Nordic joint bid included the following six host cities and venues: The Hungarian bid included the same cities and venues as the bid that was presented for the 2021 championship.

Qualification

1. If a country from Oceania (Australia) participating in the Asian Championships finished within the top 5, it would have qualified for the World Championships. As it finished sixth or lower, the place was transferred to the wild card spot.

Qualified teams

Marketing

The official logo and slogan was unveiled on 30 August 2022. It features the colours blue, red and yellow, representing the flag colours of hosts Sweden, Norway and Denmark, with the circles symbolising a ball flying through the air at a rapid speed. The slogan: "Aim to Excite" was also unveiled the same day. The logo was designed by Danish brand agency Urgent.Agency. The official anthem of the competition is "Aiming For Number One", made and performed by Swedish DJ and producer Wahlstedt. It is not the first anthem Wahlstedt has made for a handball competition ("All for us" for the

2020 European Men's Handball Championship The 2020 EHF European Men's Handball Championship was the 14th edition of the tournament and the first to feature 24 national teams. It was co-hosted for the first time in three countries – Austria, Norway and Sweden – from 9 to 26 January ...

Draw

The draw took place on 6 July 2023 in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

, Sweden.

Seeding

The seeding was announced on 3 July 2023.

Referees

23 referee pairs were selected on 27 October 2023. On 1 December 2023, Novica Mitrović and Miljan Vešović from Montenegro were called up from the reserve list to referee.

Squads

Preliminary round

The schedule was announced on 1 March 2023. ''All times are local (

UTC+1 +01:00 is an identifier for a time offset from UTC of +01:00. In ISO 8601, the associated time would be written as 2019-02-07T23:28:34+01:00. This time is used in: *Central European Time * West Africa Time * Western European Summer Time **Brit ...

).''

Group A

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Group B

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Group C

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Group D

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Group E

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Group F

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Group G

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Group H

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President's Cup

Group I

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Group II

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31st place game

29th place game

27th place game

25th place game

Main round

All points and goals obtained in the preliminary round against teams that advance as well, are carried over.

Group I

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Group II

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Group III

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Group IV

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Final round

Bracket

5–8th place playoffs

Quarterfinals

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5–8th place semifinals

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Semifinals

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Seventh place game

Fifth place game

Third place game

Final

Final ranking and awards

Final ranking

Places 1 to 8 and 25 to 32 will be decided by play-off or knock-out. Teams finishing third in the main round will be ranked 9th to 12th, teams finishing fourth in the main round 13th to 16th, teams finishing fifth in the main round 17th to 20th and teams ranked sixth 21st to 24th. In case of a tie in points gained, the goal difference of the main round will be taken into account, then number of goals scored. If teams will still be equal, number of points gained in the preliminary round will be considered followed by the goal difference and then number of goals scored in the preliminary round.

All-star Team

The All-star Team was announced on 17 December 2023.

Statistics

Top goalscorers

Top goalkeepers

References

External links

Official websiteIHF website
{{DEFAULTSORT:Handball, World Championship, Women, 2023

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