France will have history in their sights when they play Sweden today as they attempt to become the first team to defend the men’s Handball Olympic title.
Sweden have a chance to shake off the tag of nearly men – they took home a silver medal from Barcelona 1992, Atlanta 1996 and Sydney 2000, but have never managed to top the podium.
France, who are reigning world champions, topped the podium at Beijing 2008 four years ago and assured themselves of at least a silver medal at London 2012 when they edged past Croatia 25-22 in a semi-final at the Basketball Arena.
They will be favourites to earn gold again against the Scandinavians, who were not expected to advance much further than the quarter-finals, having been a team in transition.
Claude Onesta’s French side also have something to prove after a disappointing campaign at January’s European Championships in Serbia, where they failed to reach the semi-finals. Right-back Jerome Fernandez said: ‘We want to win the gold medal because it’s very important for us. We had an accident in Serbia and we want to come back and prove we are the best. ‘We have had six or seven weeks of preparation in the build-up to London and we needed that. We needed to get fresh because our players have played a lot of games for their clubs. ‘It has never been done before but one day the statistics have to change so I think that it can be us to win two gold medals in back-to-back Olympics.
France face final fight to retain title
