Men’s Event
France is the reigning Olympic champions and will be buoyed by home support. They’ve also won the 2022 and 2024 Nations League after finishing third in 2021. The major downside of their resume is only making the quarter-finals at the last two World Championships. Poland was the 2023 winner of the Nations League as well as the 2018 world champions. They finished second in the 2021 Nations League and third in 2022 and 2024. In the World Championships 2022 they made the final, winning silver. It was Italy who won gold after finishing fourth in the previous two Nations League but they improved to second in 2024 Japan were quarter-finalists in 2022, improving to fourth third in 2023 before taking second in 2024. Argentina won bronze for the second time in their history at the Tokyo Olympics. Their South American rivals Brazil are historically stronger, having been to the final four on the last five occasions. It was only fourth in Tokyo though. They won the 2019 World Cup and the 2021 Nations League before winning bronze at the 2022 World Championships. United States have been strong especially in the Nations League, finishing second in 2022 and 2023. Slovenia came fourth in 2021 and 2024, as they did in the 2022 World Championship. Serbia were fourth place finishers in 2018 but have slowly been declining. Canada, Egypt and Germany are also competing.
Egypt are seen by most as the weakest team competing and are in Pool B which should see all three teams expecting to get through. France are in Pool A and will fancy their chances of going unbeaten in the whole competition, winning the group ahead of Slovenia. Pool C should see Japan and the United States battling for the win ahead of Argentina. Poland has a strong recent record against Italy so assume they win B. Japan and the United States have split recently and there is usually one shock so will give this to the United States. Ultimately I think France and Poland cruise through to the semi-finals with the United States joining them. Italy and Japan play in the other quarter-final and I’ll edge to Italy. I think France is going to win this competition unbeaten and we see Poland as their closest challengers in the final but they lose. I think Italy beat the United States for bronze.
🥇France 🇫🇷
🥈Poland 🇵🇱
🥉Italy 🇮🇹
Women’s Event
United States are the current Olympic champions and have medalled on the last four occasions. They also have won the Nations League in 2018, 2019 and 2021. Serbia has medalled at the past two Olympics, winning bronze in 2018. They are also the double reigning World Champions and finished third in the 2022 Nations League. Brazil have a track record of finishing second lately. They were second at the Tokyo Olympics, the 2022 World Championships and the 2019, 2021 and 2022 Nations League. Second in 2023 was China. They were the World Cup winners in 2018 and came third in the 2018 and 2019 Nations League. They also won bronze at the 2018 World Championship as well as the 2019 World Cup. Turkey have a full podium of Nation League finishes. They came second in 2018, fourth in 2019 and 2022, third in 2021 before taking victory in 2023. They also won the 2023 European Championship and were the only unbeaten team in the Olympic qualifying tournament. The season before, Italy won the 2022 Nations League and then also took the win in 2024. At the 2018 World Championship, they won silver, whilst in 2022 it was bronze. They beat Japan in the 2023 Asian Games final. They were quarter-finalists at the last two World Championships and were second in the 2024 Nations League. Poland came third in both the 2023 and 2024 Nations League. The Pan-American Games winners in 2023 were the Dominican Republic. The Netherlands won bronze in the 2023 European Championship and came fourth in the 2018 World Championship. France has qualified for the first time, as hosts, but it would be a surprise if they contended whilst Kenya are the other competitor.
This feels like a closer competition where anyone can beat anyone. France and Kenya are the weakest nations which probably means their pools see three teams go through. Serbia are double reigning world champions but the form has not been the same since. I think China take Pool A ahead of the United States and Serbia. Pool B looks even closer and I think Brazil edge over Poland and Japan. In Pool C, I think Italy can edge Turkey. China can make the semi-final beating Serbia along with Brazil. Italy end up beating Turkey again and Poland can beat the United States. Brazil and China win those semi-finals by virtue of their better head-to-head records. I prefer Brazil in that final whilst I think Poland get the bronze in an upset.
🥇Brazil 🇧🇷
🥈China 🇨🇳
🥉Poland 🇵🇱
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