The History of Beach Handball
Over the last three decades, beach handball has exploded in popularity. From its emergence in Italy in the early 1990s to its appearance at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games, people around the world have come to love this fast-paced sport. Its growing fan base has big goals, and many hope it will soon be added to the senior Olympic program.
With the international spotlight now on beach handball, there has never been a better time to get interested. Its rise from a trendy game on the beaches of Italy to the Olympic stage is truly one of the most incredible sport stories of recent years.
The Beginnings of a New Sport
Simonetta Montagni, an Italian handball coach, was one of the first people to recognize that playing handball on the beach could add appeal to the sport. Inspired by the massive popularity of beach volleyball in the late 1980s, he began to adapt the rules of play for the sand.
Meanwhile, other players across Italy were also considering the possibility of bringing handball to the beach.
For Gianni Buttarelli and Franco Schiano, necessity was the mother of invention. They were local handball club presidents on the island of Ponzo, a community of just 3000 people off the coast of Sardinia, who were becoming increasingly frustrated with the lack of available courts. They too realized that playing on the beach could create new opportunities to expand the popularity of handball.
In 1990, Luciano Bartolini began developing the first set of rules for the game at the request of the newly elected president of the Italian Handball Federation. Bartolini took advantage of the pre-existing beach volleyball courts and adapted the rules of the game to fit within their dimensions. His concept used three players per team, plus a goalkeeper, and made the substitution area the same size as the court.
Recognition by the IHF
The first beach handball demonstration match was played in Misano Adriatico in 1992, and later that year, the first tournament was held on Ponzo. An international tournament soon followed, with other countries across Europe who had also begun to play handball on the sand, including the Netherlands, Germany, Portugal, and Russia, competing against Italian teams in Teramo.
Ralf Dejaco, the president of the Italian Handball Federation, led the campaign to officially recognize beach handball as a sport, using financial support from the Italian Olympic Committee. At a meeting in Formia, representatives of the Dutch and Italian Handball Federations agreed on a common set of rules, and in May of 1994, the International Handball Federation officially recognized beach handball.
Growing International Popularity
In October 1995, the European Handball Federation created the Beach Handball Working Group with representatives from Austria, Italy, the Netherlands, and Spain to continue testing and modifying the method of play. An international group was formed a few months later, in recognition of the game’s increasing popularity in South America.
By 1997, beach handball was being played throughout Europe, with a calendar of events taking place across the continent. Soon, courses were created for beach handball coaches and referees, further establishing the sport’s growing popularity.
The first Pan American Men’s Championships took place in 1998, followed by the first European Championships two years later. In 2003, the European Beach Handball Tour was established, and the following year, the first World Championships took place in El Gouna. Over the next decade, further competitions took place in the Americas, Europe, and Asia.
In the early 2010s, the sport gained new popularity among children and youth, as younger age categories were added to the EURO championships.
Olympic Dreams
Beach handball continues to grow in popularity, with international competitions attracting dozens of teams from around the world and tens of thousands of fans.
In 2019, the PGNiG Sumer Superliga, hosted annually since 2017 by the Polish Handball Federation, attracted 1,000 athletes from eight countries, who participated in three different tournaments. It also caught the attention of more than 80,000 fans from around the world.
The ANOC World Beach Games, established in 2019 by the Association of National Olympic Committees, also features beach handball on its program. The inaugural event saw 12 men’s and 12 women’s teams competing, representing countries from five continents and confirming the international interest in beach handball.
Perhaps the sport’s most high profile tournament to date has been the 2018 Youth Olympic Games. More than 200 young athletes from 15 countries took part in Buenos Ares, attracting international attention and bringing new fans to the sport. Beach handball’s Youth Olympic Games debut also created further interest in adding the sport to the senior Olympic program.
On February 11, 2020, the IHF submitted a formal request to the International Olympic Committee to include beach handball at the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris, France. While the IOC ultimately decided not to include it at the 2024 games as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still hope that it may be included in 2028 at the Los Angeles Olympic Games. The IOC particularly noted the sport’s growing popularity, and its success at the 2018 Youth Olympic Games.
The Future of Beach Handball
Although fans won’t get to see beach handball at the 2024 Paris games, there are still some major tournaments coming up to look forward to.
The 2022 Men’s and Women’s Beach Handball World Championships and Youth Beach Handball World Championships will be announced in November 2021. Dozens of teams from around the world are expected to compete.
The World Games in Birmingham, USA, in July 2022, will feature beach handball for the fourth time, while the Dakar 2026 Youth Olympic Games (originally scheduled for 2022) will also once again feature the sport. Both of these events are likely to bring further popularity and attract new fans to beach handball.
The sport of beach handball has come a long way from its origins on a tiny island in Italy. It’s now played around the world by thousands of athletes, representing different countries, age groups, and levels of plays. The future of the sport looks bright, as high profile competitions and Olympic ambitions attract new fans from around the world to the sport.
