Claude Onesta – Keynote Speaker

Claude Onesta is the Head Coach for the French National Handball team since 2001.

He is the only coach to have obtained the three major titles in handball: European champion (twice, in 2006 and 2010), world champion (twice, in 2009 and 2011) and Olympic champion (twice, in 2008 and 2012). More prominently, he is the first coach for a French National team (and the first coach for a handball national team in the world), to have held these three titles simultaneously.

Claude Onesta has been voted Best Coach of the year by the IHF in 2009 and 2010, and World Handball Coach of the Year 2009. Onesta’s French national team defended their Beijing Olympic gold in London in 2012 after a thrilling final against Sweden. He is currently remodelling the French National Handball team to prepare for the 2017 World Championship to be played on home soil.

Earlier in his career, he led the French team to bronze medals at the 2003 World Men’s Handball Championship in Portugal, and again at the 2005 World Men’s Handball Championship in Tunisia. Under his supervision, the French team also obtained the bronze medal at the 2008 European Men’s Handball Championship in Norway.