The Croatia national handball team represents Croatia in international men's team handball competitions and friendly matches. The handball team is controlled by the Croatian Handball Federation (HRS). Croatia has often been portrayed as an international force in handball, having won two Olympic gold medals and one World Championship, but never winning the Euros, having lost three finals, one to rivals France, one to Denmark, and one to Spain. The Croatian national team that won the 1996 Olympic gold medal was often credited as the biggest upset in history of handball, with handball making its debut appearance. The Croatian national team won a so-called "international double" after winning both the gold medal at the Olympics (2004) and the World Championship (2003), beating Germany in both finals. Croatia's handball team has often been labelled as a model for sport, often being the replacement for Romania in Europe's "Big three" in handball, alongside France and Denmark. Some of their biggest rivals are neighbours Slovenia, Hungary and Serbia. Germany are also called rivals of the handball team, although matches between Germany and Croatia have been met with Croatian dominance, Germany only winning once in their nine meetings, and Croatia winning seven times. Mediterranean side Spain have also been called as close rivals, having played 23 games with them, the most out of any sides the Croatians have played within handball. However, the French are often remarked as Croatia's biggest-ever rival in handball, due to both countries' successes. In recent history though, Croatia often suffered eliminations at the hands of the French. History Handball in Austria-Hungary (1904–1918) The word handball in the Croatian region was first used by Franjo Bučar, describing the German game Schleuderball in the journal Sokol 1904. The earliest documented forms of playing handball in these areas appear in 1911 in the gymnasium of Pazin, which is among other things due to the fact that programs for education in Istria, as part of the then Austrian coast, coming from the education center in Graz. In Croatia, at the time handball was in high school programs closing ceremony. It was a kind of Czech handball extended from the Czech Republic, where it was adopted by the Osijek and Vukovar students from Prague. Between the two world wars (1918–1941) In the early beginnings of the Croatian handball, venues played field handball and handball. Students were still more attracted to field handball, because the little