South Korea women's national handball team

Infobox National handball team
Name = South Korea
Nickname = Forever the Moment
Badge = South_Korea_national_handball_team_logo.gif
Association = Korea Handball Association
Coach = flagicon|KOR Lim Young-Chul
Most caps = Oh Seong-Ok (114)
pattern_la1= | pattern_b1= | pattern_ra1= |
leftarm1=FF2200 | body1=FF2200 | rightarm1=FF2200 | shorts1=FFFFFF |s ocks1=FFFFFF |
pattern_la2= | pattern_b2= | pattern_ra2= |
leftarm2=0000FF | body2=0000FF | rightarm2=0000FF | shorts2=0000FF | socks2=FFFFFF |
World cup apps = 8
World cup first = 1986
World cup best = Winners, 1995
Regional name = Asian Handball Championship
Regional cup apps = 11
Regional cup first =1987
Regional cup best = Winners, 1987, 1989, 1991, 1993, 1995,
1997, 2000, 2006

The South Korea women's national handball team is the national team of South Korea. Since 1984 the Korean team has not only participated constantly in Olympic Games but also ranked among the top four nations every time. Korea grabbed the gold medal in 1988 and 1992, and won the silver medal in 1984, 1996, and 2004. They have earned two World Championship medals so far: In 1995, they also won the World Championship title in Austria/Hungary 1995 World Women's Handball Championship, they came off third to secure the bronze medal at the Croatia in 2003 World Women's Handball Championship. It is a nine time Asian Champion, the tournament has been won by any other nation only twice.

Both the men's and women's teams failed to qualify in the regional qualifiers for the 2008 Beijing Olympics in 2007 August due to the biased refereeingFact|date=August 2008, but the International Handball Federation ordered replays of both qualifying tournaments after acknowledging biased officiating by Middle Eastern refereesFact|date=August 2008. South Korea beat Japan in both the men's and women's matches and qualified for the Beijing Olympic Games in 2008 January. However, the Executive Committee of the Kuwait-based federation, which had rejected the International Handball Federation's ruling to hold the replays, agreed to fine Japan and South Korea $1,000 and issued a warning to both countries. In addition, the Asian Handball Federation appealed the IHF’s decision to the Court of Arbitration for Sport, which ruled the Asian women’s qualification invalid and forced the Korean ladies to play in the final Olympic qualifying tournament. The replay was decided to be invalid by the Court. The Korean women's team earned their ticket to the Beijing Olympics at the Olympic qualifying game held at Nimes, France. In the semi final match of 2008 Beijing Olympic games with Norway, Norway's deciding goal was requested to be annulled by the Korean delegation, because they claimed the ball had not crossed the goal line before the end whistle of the game. Korea's appeal was turned down by the IHF's Disciplinary Commission, confirming the end result to be 29-28 in favor of Norway.cite web | title = Decision of the IHF Disciplinary Commission | date = 2008-08-21 | url = http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idcat=269&idart=1550 ]

The 2008 film "Forever the Moment" is a fictionalized account of the teams' journey to the 2004 Athens Olympics.

Current squad

The South Korean international squad of 2008.

(As of March, 2008)cite web | title = Women's Olympic Qualification - Korea | date = 2008-03-29 | url = http://women-oqt.ihf.info/exchange/france/pdf/KOR-R.pdf]

Notable players

* Lim O-Kyeong - World Handball Player of the Year (1996)
* Kim Hyun-Mee - World Handball Player of the Year (1989)

Major Achievements

Olympic Games

=World Championship cite web | title = Team Portrait - Korea | url = http://www.ihf.info/front_content.php?idart=1082] =

* World Champion in 1995
* 3rd place in 2003
* 8th place in 2005
* 6th place in 2007

References