The defeat of the Guerreras against Hungary (24-27), the fourth in the four games played in these Games, put the final nail in the coffin of the sad journey of the women’s handball team in Paris. In the last day of the group stage, this Saturday (11.00), they will have to overcome the ordeal of meeting the host and powerful France. This Thursday, the match in which they showed more fortitude and resistance to adversity, was their final chapter. The mathematics no longer allow it. Of the six in each group, four go through and Spain is out with one game left. Their reaction in the second half against the Magyars to come back from 15-20 and go 21-20 with 15 minutes to go came to nothing.
You have to go back a long way to find a championship that was so lacking in results and, for many minutes, in play and sensations. Above all, because of what it means as a showcase for the Games. Three years ago in Tokyo, they were ninth and, although they did not make it to the quarter-finals either, they won two matches (one of them against France) and were in the fight. In Rio 2016, the last major international tournament of the golden generation, they finished fifth after a cruel quarter-final defeat to the French. And in London 2012, the team scored the greatest success in its history: bronze. Times that are now very far away.
Medals have long been a long way off, a message that everyone has accepted, and in Paris they were not part of the Warriors’ obligations. However, the composition of the group opened a window to a hypothetical passage to the quarterfinals. The two initial duels with the South Americans and Angola, two teams that do not belong to the world elite (Spain had never lost against them), generated inevitable expectations. What has happened, however, has been the opposite: a great disappointment since the heavy defeat against Brazil (18-29).
The statements of the protagonists, with coach Ambros Martín at the head, have pointed to the difficulties of the locker room to mentally manage this open path. “The pressure of playing the first match in the Games against a direct rival has overwhelmed us,” admitted the coach after the severe punishment from the South Americans. “We have not shown that gene that we have inside. We have to respect the shirt and all the work that we have been doing for a long time,” added captain Lara González (32 years old), who made her debut in the absolute in 2013 and lived the end of the best times.
He angola The second game (26-21), with just six goals in the second half (the last two in the final minute and with everything settled), confirmed that there would be no peace for the Guerreras in Paris. That game also added a symbolic element to the bankruptcy: the African team is coached by Carlos Viver, the Spanish coach until after the Games held in 2021. “We have to be more disciplined,” lamented Lara González that afternoon.
In the last three years, the national team has had three coaches: Viver was dismissed after Tokyo; his assistant, José Ignacio Prades, took over in 2021, just two months before the World Cup organised by Spain (fourth to benefit from being hosts); and Ambros Martín arrived in May 2023. Winner of four Champions Leagues, his status as the most successful coach in women’s handball inevitably raised expectations based on his name. The immediate results, however, have not improved (13th at the World Cup nine months ago). The team achieved its goal of qualifying for the Games through the pre-Olympic tournament organised at home (it played in it favoured by the third-place results at the World Cup), but the poor performance in Paris is a big blow to the image of a team that captivated the public in the past due to its competitive ability. The opposite of what it has displayed in most of the matches at these Games. This Thursday, against Hungary, was almost the exception to try to stop (unsuccessfully) the defeatist tendency of a dressing room overwhelmed at the start of the tournament by the emotional burden of the match and expectations.
Starting with the mental fragility that was confessed at the start of the tournament to manage the aspirations, the Guerreras have shown their usual ills: many ball losses, irregularity in the game and competitive inconsistency. Of the whole tournament, only the first 20 minutes against Holland and the good reaction in the second half against the Magyars are worth saving. Little to survive in a high-level event.
The highly commendable silver medal won in 2019, with Viver on the bench, seemed to mark the beginning of a new era for the national team after the renewal carried out after Rio 2016, the final point of the best generation of players (Marta Mangué, Macarena Aguilar, Begoña Fernández…). But no. Since then, only a fourth place at the 2021 World Cup, pushed by a friendly schedule. Two oases in the long journey of a team that has moved away from the elite (in the European Championships – biannual -, the best result since the silver medal in 2014 is a ninth place in 2022 and 2020), and that in Paris has lost all its games.
You can follow EL PAÍS Sports on Facebook and Xor sign up here to receive the Daily newsletter of the Paris Olympic Games.
