Uzbekistan Women

Handball in Uzbekistan organised itself around a single federation, set up in 1992 to bring the women's game under the International Handball Federation and the Asian Handball Federation in the same year, and the national side built its programme from that structure rather than from any one city club. Vladimir Muminov took charge at the outset and stayed for a quarter of a century, guiding the team through its only real breakthrough: fourth place at the 1997 Asian Women's Handball Championship, a result the side has not matched since. That same year brought a first World Championship, in which Uzbekistan finished 21st, and then a long gap — the team did not return to the World Championship until 2021, when it placed 30th.

Asian competition has stayed the team's real measure. Since the mid-2010s the results have settled into a narrow band: fifth at the 2014 Asian Games, fifth again at the Asian Championships of 2015, 2017 and 2021, sixth at the 2006 Asian Games, eighth in 2022. Kazakhstan and Iran are the opponents that matter most, and the games against Kazakhstan in particular tend to be tight.

Almost the entire squad passes through AGMK, the club from Almalyk that has won the Uzbekistan championship 13 times and supplies the bulk of the national team's players, past and present — Alina Sukhoplyasova and Aziza Abzalova among the earlier generation, Anastasiya Mustafayeva, Madina Khudoykulova and Sarvinoz Sultanova among the current one. The team trains and plays in Tashkent without a fixed arena of its own, moving between venues in the city. An Olympic appearance has eluded Uzbekistan throughout; the side withdrew from qualifying for the 2024 Games rather than compete for one.