The 2020 IHF Men's Olympic Qualification Tournaments were held in Montenegro, France and Germany. The top two teams from each of the three tournaments qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics joining six already qualified teams: host nation, world champions and four winners of continental qualifying events.
The tournaments were initially scheduled to take place from 17 to 19 April 2020, but the IHF postponed them to June 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Following the postponement of the 2020 Summer Olympics to JulyâÂÂAugust 2021, the IHF announced on 24 April 2020 that the tournaments would be again rescheduled, taking place from 12 to 14 March 2021.
<section begin=Format/>Similar as for previous editions, there were three Olympic Qualification Tournaments. The twelve teams that have not yet qualified through the five events mentioned above were selected based on their performance in the events. These teams were divided into three tournaments, each containing four teams, with two teams from each tournament qualifying for the olympic tournament.
Based on the 2019 World Championship and four continental qualifying events, the twelve selected teams were chosen as follows, starting with the World Championship:
The twelve selected teams were allocated in three pools of four teams according to the table below.
The team selection process determined the twelve teams that competed in the IHF Olympic Qualification Tournaments based on final rankings of 2019 World Championship and four continental events.
Apart from gold medalist and teams which later qualified thru continental qualification events, six best placed teams from 2019 World Championship earned a right to participate in the IHF Olympic Qualification Tournaments. The assignment of their slot position, used for pool allocation, will be based on the final ranking at World Championship.
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Apart from teams that have already qualified for Olympics or have already been selected to participate in the Olympic Qualification Tournaments based on their final ranking at World Championship, each continent was rewarded with certain number of qualification slots in accordance with continental ranking from the 2019 World Championship. In total, six additional slots are allocated to all continents and determined according performance at various continental qualification events.
The best ranked teams of each continent in the 2019 World Championship represent the continent in order to determine the continental ranking.
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The following was the composition of the Olympic Qualification Tournaments:
The referees were announced on 25 February 2021.
The tournament will be played in Montenegro, after Norway had to withdraw the right to host.
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All times are local (UTC+1).
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All times are local (UTC+1).
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All times are local (UTC+1).