Team Handball and the Olympics
On the first day of the Olympics, I was watching Korean and Russian women compete in a sport I found inexplicable. It looked like basketball lacrosse, with people were dribbling and passing, but shooting at a big net instead of a basket. Maddeningly, the announcers never mentioned the name of the contest we were watching, nor did the scoreboard display anything but the two countries’ names. Google finally told me I was watching “team handball”, and also ruined the outcome of the match I was watching (tie game - damn you, NBC tape delay!)
Some fun facts about team handball:
- It was added to the Berlin Olympics in 1936 at the request of Adolf Hitler. It only returned to the Olympics in 1972, when the Games came back to Germany. Basically, team handball is for Nazis.
- Like basketball, you can move forward while dribbling the ball. You are allowed to take three steps with the ball in your hands, which is only allowed in basketball if you are dunking or have a lucrative shoe deal with Nike.
- Team handball is not the same as American handball, which is like racquetball, sans racquet.
- According to Wikipedia, handball also refers to the penalty infraction in soccer, a legal technique in Australian Rules football, and the sexual practice of fisting.
In conclusion, team handball is for fist-fucking Nazis.
