| | Event type
Handball, Men
| Date | 7 – 21 August 2016 | |
|---|---|---|
| Status | Olympic | |
| Location | Arena do Futuro, Parque Olímpico da Barra, Barra da Tijuca, Rio de Janeiro | |
| Participants | 177 from 12 countries | |
| Format | Round-robin pools advance teams to classification matches. | |
The two preliminary groups of the men’s Olympic handball tournament were won by Croatia and Germany, who collected as many points as France and Slovenia respectively. Both semi-finals were very close games. Germany, the reigning European champion, lost against world champion France by 28-29. In the other semi-final Denmark succeeded with the same result against Poland after overtime. Surprisingly Denmark won the Olympic gold medal against the clear tournament favorite France in a tight game 28-26. Germany won the bronze medal match against Poland and thus captured the fifth Olympic medal since 1936 for a German team.
Preliminary Round
| Date | 7 – 15 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Top four teams in each group advance to quarter-finals. |
Group A
| Date | 7 – 15 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Top four teams in group advance to quarter-finals. |
| Pos | Team | NOC | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Croatia |  CRO | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 147-134 | ||
| 2 | France |  FRA | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 152-126 | ||
| 3 | Denmark |  DEN | 3 | 0 | 2 | 6 | 136-127 | ||
| 4 | Qatar |  QAT | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 122-127 | ||
| 5 | Argentina |  ARG | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 110-126 | ||
| 6 | Tunisia |  TUN | 0 | 1 | 4 | 1 | 118-145 |
Group B
| Date | 7 – 15 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Top four teams in group advance to quarter-finals. |
| Pos | Team | NOC | Wins | Draws | Losses | Points | Goals | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Germany |  GER | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 153-141 | ||
| 2 | Slovenia |  SLO | 4 | 0 | 1 | 8 | 137-126 | ||
| 3 | Brazil |  BRA | 2 | 1 | 2 | 5 | 141-150 | ||
| 4 | Poland |  POL | 2 | 0 | 3 | 4 | 139-140 | ||
| 5 | Egypt |  EGY | 1 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 129-143 | ||
| 6 | Sweden |  SWE | 1 | 0 | 4 | 2 | 132-131 |
Quarter-Finals
| Date | 17 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advances to semi-finals. |
Semi-Finals
| Date | 19 August 2016 |
|---|---|
| Format | Winner of each match advances to gold medal match. |
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match #1 | 19 Aug 20:30 | Christiansen / Mensah Larsen / Mortensen / Nøddesbo / Svan / Hansen / Møllgaard Jensen / Søndergaard / Hansen / Hansen / Olsen / Damgaard Nielsen / Landin | DEN | 29 – 28 | Lijewski / Jachlewski / Krajewski / Bielecki / Wiśniewski / Jurecki / Jurkiewicz / Syprzak / Daszek / Kus / Szyba / Szmal / Wyszomirski | POL | After Extra Time |
| Match #2 | 19 Aug 15:30 | Narcisse / Karabatic / Mahé / Grébille / Abalo / Sorhaindo / Guigou / Karabatic / Fabregas / Dipanda / Porte / Omeyer | FRA | 29 – 28 | Gensheimer / Lemke / Wiencek / Reichmann / Wiede / Pekeler / Weinhold / Strobel / Häfner / Kühn / Drux / Heinevetter / Wolff | GER |
Final Round
| Date | 21 August 2016 |
|---|
| Match | Date/Time | Competitors | NOC | Result | Competitors | NOC | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Match 1/2 | 21 Aug 14:00 | Christiansen / Mensah Larsen / Mortensen / Nøddesbo / Svan / Hansen / Møllgaard Jensen / Søndergaard / Hansen / Hansen / Olsen / Landin | DEN | 28 – 26 | Nyokas / Narcisse / Karabatic / Mahé / N'Guessan / Abalo / Sorhaindo / Guigou / Karabatic / Fabregas / Dipanda / Porte / Gérard / Omeyer | FRA | |
| Match 3/4 | 21 Aug 10:30 | Gensheimer / Lemke / Wiencek / Reichmann / Wiede / Pekeler / Weinhold / Strobel / Fäth / Häfner / Kühn / Drux / Heinevetter / Wolff | GER | 31 – 25 | Lijewski / Jachlewski / Krajewski / Bielecki / Wiśniewski / Jurecki / Jurkiewicz / Syprzak / Daszek / Kus / Szyba / Szmal / Wyszomirski | POL |