The Croatian handball team won

• the olympic gold medal in Atlanta in 1996, under leadership of Velimir Kljaic,
• gold medal at the World Championship held in Portugal in 2003, under the baton of Lino Cervar
• the olympic gold medal in Athens in 2004 with perfect score, without any lost game, under the leadership of Lino Cervar (for the first time in the history of this sport the same national team bears the titles of both Olympic and World champions).
• silver medal at 2020 European Handball Championship, under the baton of Lino Cervar
  

I warmly recommend You the following book (in Croatian):
Lino Cervar: Od Ucke do Olimpa, Teovizija, Zagreb, 2004., ISBN 953-209-084-3

La Croatie est championne du monde de handball

In 2004, when Croatia won the second Olympic handball title in Athens (after the first one in 1996, Atlanta), Ivano Balic was proclaimed the best handball player of the world for 2003 by International Handball Federation.

A famous “Croatian worm” – handball players celebrating gold medals (Reuters)

At the 2009 World Handball Championship organized in Zagreb Croatia won silver medal, which was another great success our team. World Cups History.

In 2009 Croatia became the new world champion at Men’s Youth World Championship in Tunisia. In 2010 Croatia handball team won silver medal. It is interesting that in the period of 2000-2010 Croatian team was 9 times in the finals of the European championships. No other country in Europe had such a continuous series of top results.

Nenad Zvonarek former selector of Chinese handball representation

There is nothing extraordinary that the handball team of Cannes, France, once won a match scoring altogether 24 goals. But the following is without precedent: all the goals were scored by one single person! And that person was Ante Kostelic – Gips (nicknamed Gips = plaster; guess why!), better known as father of Weltklasse skiers Janica and Ivica.

Ante Kostelic-Gips with friends,
photo from Stanko Kempny Croatian Mountaineering Society

During ex-Yugoslavia, although he was one of the best handball players at that time, it had not been allowed to him to enter the representation, and that is why he turned to an individual sport of skiing as a trainer. Mr. Kostelic is not only a great expert in sports, but also a person knowledgeable on the classical literature.