The USA has been more competitive in the past, with the high water mark probably being the 1984 Olympic Games. The Men’s team placed 9th, but lost by no more than 3 goals in their 6 matches. The Women’s team placed 5th, but would have won a bronze medal, if they could have turned a 1 goal loss to Germany into a victory in the pool play competition.
Both the Men’s and Women’s National Teams continued to have a measure of respectability for the rest of the 1980’s through the 1996 Olympic Games, occasionally garnering victories in Friendly competitions like the Goodwill Games against European teams. In World Championship and Olympic competition the USA has repeatedly come up short. In particular, the USA men, have the dubious distinction of an 0-0-25 record in World Championship competition. Following the 1996 games, International competitiveness dropped dramatically with losses of 20 or more goals against the top teams becoming commonplace.
Since shifting to a roster primarily consisting of dual citizen athletes based in Europe in 2019 the U.S. men have had more respectable results in international competition. This is primarily due to what might best be described as a golden generation of talent that is better than one would expect from a small talent. The U.S. Women have also utilized more dual citizens since 2019, but have struggled to be competitive.
USA Men’s National Team Results at Every IHF World Championship: Link (Note: the link needs to be updated to include the results of the 2023 World Championships.)