# Handball at the 1984 Summer Olympics

Handball at the 1984 Summer Olympics featured competition for men and women. Due to the USSR-led boycott some strong handball nations from Eastern Bloc did not compete; this gave an opportunity to the Yugoslav team to take both gold medals. Games were played at Titan Gym in Fullerton, California, and the finals were at the Forum, later the Kia Forum, in Inglewood, California.

## Qualification
### Men

| Qualification | Date | Host | Vacancies | Qualified |
| Host nation | 18 May 1978 | Athens | 1 | United States |
| 1982 World Championship | 23 February – 7 March 1982 | West Germany | 6 | Soviet Union$^1$ Yugoslavia Poland$^1$ Denmark Romania East Germany$^1$ West Germany Spain Japan |
| 1983 World Championship B | 25 February – 6 March 1983 | Netherlands | 2 3 | Hungary$^1$ Czechoslovakia$^1$ Sweden Switzerland Iceland$^2$ |
| Asian qualification tournament | 12–20 November 1983 | Sagamihara | 1 | Japan South Korea |
| 1983 Pan American Men's Handball Championship | 2–6 February 1972 | Colorado Springs | 1 0 | Cuba$^1$ Canada$^2$ |
| 1983 African Men's Handball Championship | 22–31 July 1983 | Cairo | 1 | Algeria |
| Total | | | 12 | |

### Women

| Qualification | Date | Host | Vacancies | Qualified |
| Host nation | 18 May 1978 | Athens | 1 | United States |
| 1982 World Championship | 2–12 December 1982 | Hungary | 4 2 | Soviet Union$^1$ Hungary$^1$ Yugoslavia East Germany$^1$ South Korea |
| Intercontinental Olympic Qualification | - | - | 1 | China$^3$ |
| 1983 World Championship B | 7–15 December 1983 | Poland | 0 2 | West Germany Austria |
| Total | | | 6 | |
$^1$:Teams joined Soviet lead boycott $^2$: Canada was invited to replace Cuba, but rejected the invitation, because COA supposed the team is not good enough. Then, IHF invited Iceland. $^3$: Brazil and Canada withdraw. So China qualified without play.

## Medal summary

| Event | Gold | Silver | Bronze |
| Men details | Yugoslavia (YUG) Zlatan Arnautović Mirko Bašić Jovica Elezović Mile Isaković Pavle Jurina Milan Kalina Slobodan Kuzmanovski Dragan Mladenović Zdravko Rađenović Momir Rnić Branko Štrbac Veselin Vujović Veselin Vuković Zdravko Zovko Rolando Pušnik | West Germany (FRG) Jochen Fraatz Thomas Happe Arnulf Meffle Rüdiger Neitzel Michael Paul Dirk Rauin Siegfried Roch Michael Roth Ulrich Roth Martin Schwalb Uwe Schwenker Thomas Springel Andreas Thiel Klaus Wöller Erhard Wunderlich | Romania (ROU) Mircea Bedivan Dumitru Berbece Iosif Boroş Alexandru Buligan Gheorghe Covaciu Gheorghe Dogărescu Marian Dumitru Cornel Durău Alexandru Fölker Nicolae Munteanu Vasile Oprea Adrian Simion Vasile Stîngă Neculai Vasilcă Maricel Voinea |
| Women details | Yugoslavia (YUG) Svetlana Anastasovska Alenka Cuderman Svetlana Dašić-Kitić Slavica Đukić Dragica Đurić Mirjana Đurica Emilija Erčić Ljubinka Janković Jasna Kolar-Merdan Ljiljana Mugoša Svetlana Mugoša Mirjana Ognjenović Zorica Pavićević Jasna Ptujec Biserka Višnjić | South Korea (KOR) Han Hwa-Soo Jeong Hyoi-Soon Jeung Soon-Bok Kim Choon-Rye Kim Kyung-Soon Kim Mi-sook Kim Ok-Hwa Lee Soon-Ei Lee Young-Ja Shon Mi-Na Sung Kyung-Hwa Yoon Byung-Soon Yoon Soo-Kyung | China (CHN) Chen Zhen Gao Xiumin He Jianping Li Lan Liu Liping Liu Yumei Sun Xiulan Wang Linwei Wang Mingxing Wu Xingjiang Zhang Weihong Zhang Peijun Zhu Juefeng |

## Participating nations

Each qualified country was allowed to enter one team of 15 players and they all were eligible for participation. Four nations competed in both tournaments.
A total of 259(*) handball players (177 men and 82 women) from 14 nations (men from 12 nations - women from 6 nations) competed at the Los Angeles Games:
* Algeria (15) (men:15 women:0)
* Austria (15) (men:0 women:15)
* China (13) (men:0 women:13)
* Denmark (14) (men:14 women:0)
* West Germany (28) (men:15 women:13)
* Iceland (15) (men:15 women:0)
* Japan (15) (men:15 women:0)
* Romania (15) (men:15 women:0)
* South Korea (28) (men:15 women:13)
* Spain (15) (men:15 women:0)
* Sweden (15) (men:15 women:0)
* Switzerland (15) (men:15 women:0)
* United States (27) (men:14 women:13)
* Yugoslavia (29) (men:14 women:15)
(*) NOTE: There are only players counted, which participated in one game at least.

## Medal table

| Rank | Nation | Gold | Silver | Bronze | Total |
| 1 | Yugoslavia (YUG) | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 |
| 2 | South Korea (KOR) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | West Germany (FRG) | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 |
| 4 | China (CHN) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| 4 | Romania (ROU) | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 |
| Totals (5 entries) | Totals (5 entries) | 2 | 2 | 2 | 6 |

## Railing collapse

The only multi-casualty event noted in the 1984 official report of the Los Angeles Olympics was a small one at team handball where a railing on the bleachers collapsed. The first aid team and the chief medical officer handled the situation quickly and professionally. First aid teams were responsible for moving victims from the stands and broken railings. However, a concern that was not anticipated was the lack of experience in carrying patients from the stands. Four of eight spectators who fell through a wooden railing while trying to catch bouquets from victorious Olympic medal-winners suffered minor injuries but were not hospitalized.