World Women's Handball Championship

The International Handball Federation (IHF) has arranged the World Women's Handball Championship since 1957. Throughout its history, the championship has been heavily dominated by European teams and a vast majority of the medalists are teams from northern and eastern Europe. In 1990, South Korea became the first non-European host, followed by China in 2009 and Brazil in 2011.

Year	Host Country	Gold medal game			Bronze medal game
Year	Host Country	Gold	Score	Silver	Bronze	Score	Fourth place
1957	Yugoslavia	Czechoslovakia	7 - 1	Hungary	Yugoslavia	9 - 6	West Germany
1962	Romania	Romania	8 - 5	Denmark	Czechoslovakia	6 - 5	Yugoslavia
1965	West Germany	Hungary	5 - 3	Yugoslavia	West Germany	11 - 10	Czechoslovakia
1971	Netherlands	East Germany	11 - 8	Yugoslavia	Hungary	12 - 11	Romania
1973	Yugoslavia	Yugoslavia	16 - 11	Romania	Soviet Union	20 - 12	Hungary
1975	Soviet Union	East Germany	no final	Soviet Union	Hungary	no 3rd place playoff	Romania
1978	Czechoslovakia	East Germany	no final	Soviet Union	Hungary	no 3rd place playoff	Czechoslovakia
1982	Hungary	Soviet Union	no final	Hungary	Yugoslavia	no 3rd place playoff	East Germany
1986	Netherlands	Soviet Union	30 - 22	Czechoslovakia	Norway	23 - 19	East Germany
1990	South Korea	Soviet Union	24 - 22	Yugoslavia	East Germany	25 - 19	West Germany
1993	Norway	Germany	22 - 21 OT	Denmark	Norway	20 - 19	Romania
1995	Austria / Hungary	South Korea	25 - 20	Hungary	Denmark	25 - 24	Norway
1997	Germany	Denmark	33 - 20	Norway	Germany	27 - 25	Russia
1999	Denmark / Norway	Norway	25 - 24 2OT	France	Austria	31 - 28 OT	Romania
2001	Italy	Russia	30 - 25	Norway	Yugoslavia	42 - 40	Denmark
2003	Croatia	France	32 - 29 OT	Hungary	South Korea	31 - 29	Ukraine
2005	Russia	Russia	28 - 23	Romania	Hungary	27 - 24	Denmark
2007	France	Russia	29 - 24	Norway	Germany	36 - 35 OT	Romania
2009	China	Russia	25 - 22	France	Norway	31 - 26	Spain

Medal count for the World Women's Handball Championship (1957-2009)

Overall medal count

Rank	Nation	Gold	Silver	Bronze	Total
1	Russia*	7	2	1	10
2	Germany**	4	0	4	8
3	Hungary	1	4	4	9
4	Serbia***	1	3	3	7
4	Norway	1	3	3	7
6	Denmark	1	2	1	4
7	France	1	2	0	3
7	Romania	1	2	0	3
9	Czech Republic****	1	1	1	3
10	South Korea	1	0	1	2
11	Austria	0	0	1	1

* IHF considers Russia as the inheritor of the records of Soviet Union
** IHF considers Germany as the inheritor of the records of East Germany and West Germany
*** IHF considers Serbia as the inheritor of the records of SFR Yugoslavia, FR Yugoslavia and Serbia and Montenegro
**** IHF considers Czech Republic as the inheritor of the records of Czechoslovakia