Men's Handball Qualification to Tokyo 2020 Summer Olympic Games

[Cobi 1,024]

11 minutes ago, NaBUru38 said:

Rugby sevens gives spots to 6 continents: Africa, Asia, North and South America, Europe and Oceania.

 

Basketball and field hockey give spots to 5 continents: Africa, Asia, Americas, Europe and Oceania.

 

Indoor volleyball also gives spots to 5 continents: Africa, Asia, North and South America, and Europe.

 

Handball only gives spots to 4 continents: Africa, Asia, Americas and Europe.

It wouldn't make any sense to give a quota to Oceania in handball, where the best team wouldn't be able to win a single game. Especially when this means that a top-tier team wouldn't qualify because of that.

 

In my opinion, Asia and Oceania should have combined continental qualifiers in the majority of sports due to the lack of represenattivty of many Oceanian qualifiers (in team sports my only exception would be rugby).

[NaBUru38 219]

How about having 2 European teams, 2 Asia/Oceania teams, 2 Americas teams, 2 Africa teams, the host, the two best from the previous World Championship, and a pre-Olympic qualifier.

[Cobi 1,024]

I think that the problem of handball isn't the system, it's the level of the sport, which is mainly Eurocentric. I agree with you that continental representation is very important at the Olympics, but that's already achieved with 2 American teams, 2 Asians and 1 African. The best teams should have the right to participate at the Olympics and with the current system, we already have very strong teams such as Croatia not making the cut to Tokyo. Applying the system you just proposed, we would have only 5 Europeans instead of 7, which means 2 more potential medal winners not being able to participate.

 

Given the progression of teams such as Egypt, Brazil or Argentina, I would say that in the medium term European teams will have good competitors from other continents and they will have the chance to earn the right to participate in the pitch. But I don't get the point of letting a team participate knowing that it is going to lose all the games, just because the country is in Asia or Africa and it isn't even the best of the continent.

[EselTheDonkey 837]

27 minutes ago, NaBUru38 said:

How about having 2 European teams, 2 Asia/Oceania teams, 2 Americas teams, 2 Africa teams, the host, the two best from the previous World Championship, and a pre-Olympic qualifier.

Europe has only one definite quota place, the one for the European Champion. Everything else they won either at the World Championships or the final qualification tournament. The other continents had their chance to win these quota places as well.

[Vektor 3,326]

It makes sense for individual sports to have continental quotas, but I have always found them ridiculous for team events. We have a very limited number of teams, which means that every time a weak team qualifies thanks to the mandatory continental representation the quality of the tournament significantly drops. Have the hosts and then pick the 11 best teams in the world. That's how it should be in every team event.

 

[Vektor 3,326]

For example, I would just shift the 4 continental quotas to the WCh, which would mean that the Top5 nations at the WCh qualify for the Games, while the rest plays out similar to the original qualification system:

 

Qualified from 2019 WCh:          

 

OQT Group #1:      

 

OQT Group #2:      

 

OQT Group #3:        

 

This looks much better for me. 

[Olympian1010 8,274]

Of all the qualification systems to debate, Handball seems like an odd one. It’s definitely one of the better ones for team sports.

[Vektor 3,326]

2 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

Of all the qualification systems to debate, Handball seems like an odd one. It’s definitely one of the better ones for team sports.

Personally I just made an example with handball because that's where the conversation is. I would say that handball has one of the best qualification systems, it's the best one can make when team sports are forced to have mandatory continental representation. 

[Olympian1010 8,274]

12 minutes ago, Vektor said:

Personally I just made an example with handball because that's where the conversation is. I would say that handball has one of the best qualification systems, it's the best one can make when team sports are forced to have mandatory continental representation. 

I personally agree with the principle of continental representation. The Olympic Games are celebration of international sport. There should be strong international representation.

 

Another thing to consider when proposing doing away with continental representation is the consequences of that on the growth and appeal of sport. Getting rid of continental representation would most likely make Handball even more Euro-centric then it already is. If countries don’t have a reason/reward for competing in the sport then why would they? There are probably some countries that would still compete because of popularity of the sport, and that’s fantastic, but my guess is that there’d be a significant decrease in teams from Asia, Africa, and Pan America.

 

Also, if the Olympic Games are a celebration of international sport, how would it look for a sport to have like 10-12 European teams in it? My guess is the argument would then shift to wether or not Handball deserves a place on the Olympic program.

 

I do also think that the current strength of the top teams from Asia, Pan America, and Africa justifies giving those regions continental representation.

[Vektor 3,326]

30 minutes ago, Olympian1010 said:

I personally agree with the principle of continental representation. The Olympic Games are celebration of international sport. There should be strong international representation.

 

Another thing to consider when proposing doing away with continental representation is the consequences of that on the growth of sport. Getting rid of continental representation would most likely make Handball even more Euro-centric then it already is. If countries don’t have a reason/reward for competing in the sport then why would they? There are probably some countries that would still compete because of popularity of the sport, and that’s fantastic, but my guess is that there’d be a significant decrease in teams from Asia, Africa, and Pan America.

 

Also, if the Olympic Games are a celebration of international sport, how would it look for a sport to have like 10-12 European teams in it? My guess is the argument would then shift to wether or not Handball deserves a place on the Olympic program.

 

I do also think that the current strength of the top teams from Asia, Pan America, and Africa justifies giving those regions continental representation.

 

The Olympics should first and foremost be about the celebration of the best athletes in the world, and it's just not fair for many top athletes to miss the event because Africa needed to be part of every team competition, no matter how weak they are in some cases. Maybe it would be fine with 16 spots or more, like at the World Championships, but it just doesn't work well with 12 or less teams. 

 

I also find it funny how most of the time the people who are in favor of the current system are from outside of Europe. It's easy to support these continental quotas when your teams aren't missing because of them most of the time.