Norway has been among the world elite in women's handball since the break-through at the
1986 World Championship where the team won a bronze medal. Since then, Norway has won eight
European Championships, and four
World Championships. Norway has been in four final matches at the
Summer Olympics, and gold medaled in
Beijing 2008 and
London 2012. Norway is unsurpassed in the European Championships, having won eight golds, three silvers, and one bronze in fourteen tournaments. The
2000 European Championship where they ended 6th and in the 2018 European Championship where they ended 5th, is the only times Norway finished outside of the top three.
Early years (1946–1983) The very first match of the Norwegian women's national handball team, against
Sweden in 1946, was met with great public interest. The game ended 2–5 in favour of Sweden. During the fifties and sixties women's handball had a relatively low profile in Norway. The national team regularly participated at the Scandinavian Championships, and they qualified for the World Championships in 1971, 1973, 1975 and 1982, placing 7th twice and 8th twice.
Jacobsen period (1984–1993) Sven-Tore Jacobsen coached the national team for ten years, from 1984 to 1993.
Breivik period (1994–2009) Former player
Marit Breivik coached the team from 1994 to 2009. During her tenure, the team won six gold medals in international championships. Their achievements included gold medals at the 1999 World Championships, four gold medals at the European Championships from 1998 to 2008, and gold medals at the 2008 Summer Olympics. Their play strategy included a strong 6–0 defense and frequent fast breaks on offense.
2008 After the defeat against
Russia at the
2007 World Championship, Norway faced two important challenges in 2008: Olympic Games in August and European Championship in December. The team won their first Olympic gold medal, and they won the European Championship.
Olympic Games 2008, Beijing during the match against Romania on 17 August Norway had qualified for the
2008 Summer Olympics by winning the
2006 European Championship. The preparation for
Beijing started months before the competition started, but the final squad wasn't decided until the last weeks. Several players who had trained with the team up to this point were left out or kept as reserves, most notably
Isabel Blanco and
Terese Pedersen. There were no debuts in the group selected by
Marit Breivik, but veteran
Tonje Larsen made her comeback to the team after five years of struggle with injury.
Gro Hammerseng maintained her usual role of team captain, with
Else-Marthe Sørlie Lybekk and
Gøril Snorroeggen completing the "captains team" as vice-captains. The competition for the Norwegian team started on 9 August against the host,
China. They defeated the Chinese 30–26 and then went on to win comfortably against
Angola (31–17),
Kazakhstan (35–19) and
France (34–24). The closest result of the preliminary round was the last match, on 17 August, against
Romania (24–23). During the warm up of this match
Katja Nyberg suffered a knee injury that prevented her from playing the quarter final against
Sweden. Norway defeated the Swedish team 31–24, advancing to the semi-finals comfortably. The semi-final match was played on 21 August. Former Olympic and World Champions
South Korea turned out to be the toughest opponent of the tournament. After 58 minutes of play Norway was leading 28–25. In less than two minutes the Koreans managed to score three goals in a row, reaching the tie score of 28–28 with only two seconds left.
Katrine Lunde Haraldsen quickly started the last attack of the game with a pass to
Karoline Dyhre Breivang, who was already at the middle of the field. Breivang passed the ball on to Hammerseng who scored at the 60 minutes mark. The goal was validated by the referees but the Norwegians refrained from celebrating until the
IHF delegate finally confirmed the decision. The final match was played on 23 August. It was a replay of the 2007 World Championship, Norway vs Russia. The Norwegian victory was secured early on. They were already leading by 10 goals after 14 minutes played and
Trefilov's team never managed to lower that margin below a five-goal difference. The match ended 34–27 for Norway.
Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth was top scorer with nine goals out of ten shots. The Norwegian team received their first Olympic gold medal after the final match. Two Norwegian players were selected into the tournament's All-Star Team: Katrine Lunde Haraldsen as goalkeeper and Else-Marthe Sørlie Lybekk as pivot. Lunde Haraldsen was also overall top goalkeeper with a 42% save rate while
Kari Aalvik Grimsbø ranked first (together with Korean Oh Yongran) at 7-metres shots with a 40% rate. Regarding team statistics, Lybekk finished the tournament as Norway's top scorer with 31 goals and a 72% scoring rate, two points ahead of Riegelhuth who scored the same number of goals but with a 70% success rate.
European Championship 2008, Macedonia After the Olympic Games, Breivik encountered challenges for the
2008 European Championship: Lybekk retired from the national team, Snorroeggen was recovering from a shoulder injury and both Hammerseng and Nyberg would forego international play in order to recover from recent sport activity with only club matches. Thus a new squad was formed. Three players made their debut:
Heidi Løke (pivot) and
Tine Rustad Kristiansen (centre back) from
Larvik, and
Camilla Herrem (left wing) from
Byåsen. With the three members of the Olympic "captains team" out,
Kristine Lunde was appointed new captain with
Marit Malm Frafjord and Karoline Dyhre Breivang as vice-captains. Norway was a favorite to win the European title, especially after winning the
GF World Cup '08 and
Møbelringen Cup 2008. Spain was not overcome with the perceived invincibility of the competition when Norway lost to them the first match of the tournament on 3 December. The Norwegians could only tie 21–21 against
Spain, the same team which left them out of the
2004 Summer Olympics in 2003. Following that first disappointment, they managed to advance through the preliminary round and main round without a loss. The semi-final match was played on 13 December against Russia. It was an easy win for Norway and even goalkeeper Haraldsen was able to score once. On 14 December, Spain was waiting at the final match. After an even first half the score was 13–12 for the defending champions. During the second half Norway increased the lead to a final score of 34–21. Euro 2008 was the third European Championship gold in a row for Norway, and the fourth title in the history of the team. Linn-Kristin Riegelhuth was top scorer of the tournament with 51 goals and four Norwegian players were included in the All-Star Team: Riegelhuth as right wing, Katrine Lunde Haraldsen as goalkeeper, Tonje Larsen as left back and Kristine Lunde as center back. Lunde was also named
MVP.
Hergeirsson period (2009–2024) In 2009
Thorir Hergeirsson took over as coach, and the first season resulted in a bronze medal at the 2009 World Championships. A year later, in 2010, the team won its 5th European Championship title and in 2011 its second World Championship. In August 2012, the team defended its Beijing Olympic gold by beating Montenegro 26–23 in the final at the Olympic Games in London. In the European Championship the same year, the two teams met again. This time Montenegro beat Norway, who won silver. The Norwegian team won another gold medal at the
2014 European Women's Handball Championship, and at the
2015 World Women's Handball Championship in Denmark they won their third World Championship title. They won a bronze medal at the
2016 Olympics, having lost to Russia in the semi-final after extra time. At the
2016 European Women's Handball Championship in Sweden, the Norwegian team won their seventh title. The team won a silver medal at the
2017 World Women's Handball Championship in Germany, defeated by France in the final. At the
2018 European Women's Handball Championship in France they failed to reach the semi-finals, but finished 5th after defeating Sweden in the top 5 match. In 2018
Henny Reistad made her debut for the Norwegian national team, and she would later be named the
IHF World Player of the Year in 2023 and 2024 and was named captain of the team after
Stine Oftedal Dahmkes retirement after the
2024 Summer Olympics. Norway then entered a period where they won three straight European championships in
2020,
2022 and
2024, gold medals at the
2021 World Women's Handball Championship and they won an Olympic gold medal at the
2024 Summer Olympics. At the
2023 World Women's Handball Championship they did however lose the final to France. After the
2024 European Women's Handball Championship Thorir Hergeirsson finished his last contract as the head coach of Norway, marking the end of a 15 year old era. That championship also marked the end of the national team carrier of legend
Camilla Herrem. Hergeirsson was followed by
Ole Gjekstad.
Gjekstad period (2025–) The
2025 World Women's Handball Championship marked Gjekstad's first championship as the head coach of Norway. Norway won gold medals, winning every single match except the final against Germany with nine or more goals. His team was in many ways a continuation of Hergeirsson with most players being former world champions, including
Reistad,
Lunde,
Mørk and,
Skogrand among others.{{Cite web |date=5 November 2025|title=To debutanter i Gjekstads VM-tropp ==Honours==