Egypt's first performance at the IHF World Championship was in 1964, where they failed to earn a single point. But since they were the first African team to participate at the tournament, and the fact that non-European teams were heavily underdeveloped back then, it was considered a major achievement. After Egypt started developing their handball infrastructure, Egypt were able to qualify for the 1993 tournament at Sweden. They were able to win a gamethis time, against Czechoslovakia and were able to progress to the next round with one win and two losses. In the second round, however, despite close matches against all three opponents – Romania, France and Switzerland – Egypt failed to progress to the next stage. Egypt's performance at the 1995 Championship is what raised Egypt as a strong team. This time, Egypt was able to win against three out of five teams at the first round, beating Brazil, Kuwait and a close match against Belarus. Egypt who were widely expected not to survive the knockout stage, beat former World Champions Romania in the round of 16. While they were later beaten at the quarterfinals against Croatia, the team was highly praised back home. Handball continued to grow at Egypt and a rivalry formed between Egypt and Tunisia. At the 1996 Olympics Egypt had their best performance after losing the 5th place match. Egypt advanced to the quarterfinals every time between 1995 and 2001. In 1999, when it was hosted in Egypt, they failed to pass to the semi-finals after a loss against Russia. In the 2001 IHF World Championship, Egypt beat Morocco, Portugal and Iceland, drew with Czechia and lost to Sweden. At the knockout stage, Egypt beat fellow Africans, Algeria. At the quarterfinal, where Egypt has been knocked out three times prior, Egypt was against Russia again. Egypt were able to have their revenge after winning the close game 21–19. Egypt then became the first non-European team to reach the World Championship semi-finals. However, after losses against France and Yugoslavia, Egypt placed fourth. This was the best performance by a non-European team until it was equaled by Tunisia in 2005. It was not until Qatar at 2015, got the silver medal, that Egypt's record was broken. However, Qatar's team was not without controversies. Between 2003 and 2017, Egypt qualified every time but failed to impress, failing to advance to the quarterfinals every time. Egypt recently broke this streak at the 2019 IHF World Championship, where they placed eight. A year later, Egypt would beat their North African Rivals Tunisia in their own turf, qualifying to the 2020 Olympics. And with Egypt hosting the first 32-team Handball Championship in 2021, there are hopes for a second Egyptian Golden Generation.
Competitive record
ChampionsRunners-up Third place Fourth place Olympic Games
