Handball in the OL

Snow said:
... and that's why I was easy on the gloating.
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Yeah thanks for that, we were all really smarting at losing the handball.

Tbf, I'd rather watch this than Cricket or Golf...Or Baseball... or American Football....But I prefer Basketball. There's way more skill in placing a larger ball in a small hoop than there is in throwing a small ball into a 5-a-side goal surely? Plus BBall dribbling is equatable to football, in that it's not just wandering around for a bit holding it.

It wont catch on here, but it's not bad. It's a better Olympic sport than dressage. Though it does look a bit like 5-a-side football for people who can't play football.


Snow said:
Loads of sport I don't get. Can't fathom why baseball or cricket is popular but I don't keep harping on about it.
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They aren't really, in a non-provincial way. Cricket is technically the 2nd most popular sport in the world but that's almost entirely due to it's popularity in the Indian subcontinent. Where they absolutely love it, and take it far more seriously than anyone should. Or indeed anyone does. Neither are as popular worldwide as football or tennis or boxing though. Or even hockey and volleyball. Cricket doesn't even make it into the top 33 most played sports. There are more Roller Sports federations than there are Cricket ones. Basketball fwiw, has 7 more than football. Though obviously football's viewing popularity (& amateur playing) far outweighs everything else.

Btw, anyone who finds Basketball dull should watch Slamball. The full contact version with trampolines.
 
Mockney said:
Yeah thanks for that, we were all really smarting at losing the handball.

Tbf, I'd rather watch this than Cricket or Golf...Or Baseball... or American Football....But I prefer Basketball. There's way more skill in placing a larger ball in a small hoop than there is in throwing a small ball into a 5-a-side goal surely? Plus BBall dribbling is equatable to football, in that it's not just wandering around for a bit holding it.

It wont catch on here, but it's not bad. It's a better Olympic sport than dressage. Though it does look a bit like 5-a-side football for people who can't play football.




They aren't really, in a non-provincial way. Cricket is technically the 2nd most popular sport in the world but that's almost entirely due to it's popularity in the Indian subcontinent. Where they absolutely love it, and take it far more seriously than anyone should. Or indeed anyone does. Neither are as popular worldwide as football or tennis or boxing though. Or even hockey and volleyball. Cricket doesn't even make it into the top 33 most played sports. There are more Roller Sports federations than there are Cricket ones. Basketball fwiw, has 7 more than football. Though obviously football's viewing popularity (& amateur playing) far outweighs everything else.

Btw, anyone who finds Basketball dull should watch Slamball. The full contact version with trampolines.
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Obviously serious with that comment. It's just typical that a sport that we're good or all right at, England (GB) don't even play. Not much rivalry between the two countries but we're at least beating you 1-0 at war games.

What's the deal with cycling suddenly becoming the bee's knees? Brits get a few medals (one admittedly by cheating) and it's certainly a fun sport? No it isn't. Far from it. Lewis Hamilton is really good at driving but Formula 1 is still very boring. At least with that you can be a car nut and enjoy it for the cars. I don't think there's anything similar with cycling.

Still annoyed by the loss. This loss is equivalent to you guys having actual hopes (a bit like WC 2002) and going out like you did. Sucks. Huge shot for only our 5th ever medal at the Olympics. Not bad for a small country in a team sport I'd say.
 
I had no idea handball would be so popular in Iceland, is that anything to do with it being an indoor sport? I didn't even know it was an Olympic sport, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be, it's better to watch than 10 metre air rifle shooting, that's for sure.
 
Snow said:
O
What's the deal with cycling suddenly becoming the bee's knees? Brits get a few medals (one admittedly by cheating) and it's certainly a fun sport?
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Well it's that. It's an Olympic thing. I doubt about 90% of the country could tell you what Chris Hoy's won and where in the 4 years between here & Beijing.
 
pennared said:
I had no idea handball would be so popular in Iceland, is that anything to do with it being an indoor sport? I didn't even know it was an Olympic sport, but there's no reason why it shouldn't be, it's better to watch than 10 metre air rifle shooting, that's for sure.
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It's the third most popular sport here. Football takes it by far, then basketball.

I don't know why it's so popular. We've always been alright at it. Generally a tall and physical nation (our current side is small compared to handball though) and we're hard workers so handball just suits us just like English football suits our footballers.
I only practices it briefly alongside football. Pretty common to play 2 or even 3 sports simultaneously as a kid here.

We're still punching above our weight being so good at it. We really shouldn't have any business being so good at a team sport when we're only a nation of little over 300k.
 
France deservedly won the gold. Sweden finish the OL with 3 losses and a silver medal.
 
Snow said:
It's the third most popular sport here. Football takes it by far, then basketball.

I don't know why it's so popular. We've always been alright at it. Generally a tall and physical nation (our current side is small compared to handball though) and we're hard workers so handball just suits us just like English football suits our footballers.
I only practices it briefly alongside football. Pretty common to play 2 or even 3 sports simultaneously as a kid here.

We're still punching above our weight being so good at it. We really shouldn't have any business being so good at a team sport when we're only a nation of little over 300k.
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It's all about infrastructure I think - there's a lot of experience around after good players going abroad to play and then becoming coaches. I think three of the top coaches in the german league (strongest league in the world) are icelandic. Basically, the reason we're good at handball is the same reason as why India isn't good at anything worth mentioning really.
 
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