What makes team handball the best sport to follow during the Summer Olympics?
For starters, Iceland is in the field. Iceland! But seriously, this might be the greatest sport in the world, certainly the greatest at which the United States sucks and shouldn’t. To self-quote from a column I wrote at the 2004 Olympics, the idea is to wing a ball the size of a cantaloupe past a clearly insane goalie who guards a rectangle the size of a couple of refrigerators. The seven-on-seven indoor sport has the leaping, dribbling, passing, off-the-ball movement and shot-blocking of hoops (the ideal player is about 6-foot-5, 210 pounds; Germany had a 7-foot cross between Shawn Bradley and Randy Johnson); the hard throwing of baseball (shots fly up to 70 mph); and the body contact of hockey, soccer and lacrosse (defenders grab, push and slam the guy with the ball, who tries to shoot over, under or through a defensive fortress). Nonstop, fast-breaking, simple to understand, high-scoring. And excellent shoes! And Iceland! I beseech the Bog to make team handball this Olympics’ curlin
