- 16 Aug 08, 12:17 PM
Beijing, Olympic Sports Centre Gymnasium
Of all the impressive numbers the Chinese are posting in Beijing, two that the British are most jealous of are 639 and 28.
Those are the number of Chinese athletes taking part in these Games and the number of different sports they are competing in...that's 28 out of 28.
OK, as hosts they didn't have any qualification worries but the fact they have more than doubled the size of their team in just two Olympic cycles speaks volumes about their ambitions.
Team GB will struggle to double in size over the same time frame but is determined to contest every event on home soil in 2012, which is why I'm at the Olympic handball venue on "Super Saturday".
Handball? What's that then?
Well, it's kind of a cross between basketball and indoor football, and it looks a bit like the kind of game that would evolve over a lunch hour at school.
We had one called "murderball" which involved a rugby ball, a basketball court and crash mats. And it was played in socks (not just socks, obviously).
Handball, however, first appeared at the Olympics in 1936, has roots that go back to ancient Greece and is played in 159 countries around the world.
Britain is one of those 159 but we don't like to talk about it as we don't play it very well - probably because you can't do it sitting down.
But that's all going to change over the next four years (not the sitting down bit) as our Olympic bosses have hatched a zeroes-to-heroes plan that involves sending tall people to Denmark.
Clearly, there is a bit more to than that but I'll spare you the sports science and just boil it down to the essential facts.
First, find a pool of rangy types (ex-basketball players, former rugger-buggers, frustrated football goalies). Then test them for ability and application. And finally, send them abroad to learn the game.
The first part of that plan was the "Sporting Giants" initiative in 2005 (which brought in 5,000 applicants) and the final bit is the British Handball Academy in Aarhus.
The cost? About £1.2m a year - not a huge amount in the general scheme of things but enough to have got other more established sports chattering.
Why Aarhus? Well, the Danes are very good at handball and always have been.
The current European champions, they were the pre-competition favourites to win the men's gold here, although they've made a poor start and will probably need to beat their big rivals Germany on Monday to progress to the last eight.
But is it really realistic to expect Britain to mix it with these teams on the back of five years' training, no matter how targeted the selection process and intensive the training?
Their potential opponents certainly think so.
I asked Egyptian coach Irfan Smajlagic if he thought a country could rustle up a winning recipe that quickly and he said yes, providing you use the best ingredients and cook them properly.
"It is not a hard game to learn but they must start now. You can't do it in less than four years," he said.
French goalkeeper Thierry Omeyer agreed. His team are flying in this tournament and to my untrained eyes look like serious gold medal candidates.
"It will be interesting to see how they go but they are in the right place," said Omeyer, who was Schmeichel-like in the 28-21 win over Spain.
"Denmark has a great reputation in youth handball. It is a good place to learn."
German star Christian Schwarzer went one further. He put himself forward for the British coaching job.
"We've heard about the British plan," he said, without smirking.
"I was joking with (German handball great) Marcus Baur that we should apply for coaching jobs in London. I think it would be a great opportunity. We will see."
But perhaps the most telling comment came from Egypt's Smajlagic.
"It is definitely possible," he said. "Perhaps not to win, though. But to play a good game, yes, why not?"
Ah, so we'd just be making up the numbers - not embarrassing ourselves, but not challenging for the bling? Suddenly that £1.2m a year doesn't seem like such a snip.
Before I came out to Beijing, I put this to Peter Keen and Chelsea Warr of UK Sport, the body which funds Olympic sport in Britain.
It was Warr who dreamt up "Sporting Giants" - a call to long arms that has resulted in 50 athletes being added to Britain's handball, rowing and volleyball development squads - and she is in no doubt we can do more than give the established countries a game in London.
The "talent identification" expert pointed to the example of South Korea's rise in hockey in the run-up to the 1988 Games in Seoul as evidence it can and has been done.
The South Koreans transferred athletes from other sports into hockey, threw lots of money and good coaching at them and picked up a silver medal for their trouble.
Keen, UK Sport's elite performance boss, was also confident the handball effort was not a wasted one.
His support for the programme is essential as UK Sport may have some tough decisions to make post-Beijing.
As well as competing in every sport, Team GB has set itself the more challenging target of finishing fourth in the medal table in 2012.
Keen and his team put together a £600m plan over five years to achieve that goal. The problem is, the government is only providing £500m of that: UK Sport has to find the rest itself.
The early signs might be encouraging from Aarhus but they're not so hot on the fund-raising front. Hence, the sideways glances from other sports at handball and the other new kids on the block.
I think it would be a real shame to cut handball off at the knees now.
I really couldn't tell you if we have a snowball in hell's chance of winning anything in the sport in London or 2016 but I know for a fact it will be a surprise hit with the fans.
Fast breaks, "Hail Mary" passes, big units, lots of jumping around and crashing about, and goalkeepers expected to perform minor miracles every 30 seconds. What's not to like?
I'm coming out for handball. Can't help thinking I picked the wrong day to come and watch it, though.
About this blog
Links to the blogs of all the contributors can be found below.
Subscribe to BBC Sport: Olympics blog
You can stay up to date with BBC Sport: Olympics blog via these feeds.
BBC Sport: Olympics blog Feed(RSS)
BBC Sport: Olympics blog Feed(ATOM)
If you aren't sure what RSS is you'll find our beginner's guide to RSS useful.
Olympics headlines
Visit the BBC Sport website
Visit the Olympics index
The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites
Comments
Sign in or register to comment.
Great article and nice to hear something about handball in Beijing from the BBC.
It's a huge shame that the BBC has chosen to virtually ignore handball and many of the so-called minority (though actually globally popular) sports such as handball and indoor volleyball.
I am sure that handball will be a hit at London 2012, it is a superb spectator sport, but how is the sport supposed to build a fan and participation base in the UK if the BBC doesn't show it?
Complain about this comment
Let's face it handball is rubbish. Why not beach cricket or roller-hockey then if 'handball' is an Olympic sport. Where will it end? Snooker? Hide and seek?
Complain about this comment
Interesting choice of words that you are "Coming out" for handball, but it's a modern world, I guess...
I watched a bit of Euro 2008 Handball whilst on holiday in Austria earlier this year. Can't say it's my thing, but that's not the point - as you have rightly pointed out it has all the ingredients to catch on.
The greatest sporting event in the world is going on in Beijing at the moment, and whenever I turn on Sky Sports News it's all about the start of the Premier League.
Let's have some more variety in British Sporting Habits! Welcome to the fold, Handball!
Complain about this comment
I bet smellslike salmon's list of acceptable sports reads like: footie, footie, footie, rugger and cricket (for lazy saturdays whilst recovering from hangover).
Handball is a great game to play, and when very good teams play it, quite spectacular. just watch the aerial combinations some teams do to score, similar to alley ups in basketball.
Admittedly, it's difficult for people in the uk to get into other sports, because PE classes simply don't approach these sports. it's quite simple to teach handball to a PE class of 10 year olds. The BBC could help by showing some alternative sports other than horse racing - which only a minority of people actually do.
Complain about this comment
smellslikesalmon, OK, handball isn't for you, but is really any less out there than a few of the other sports in the Olympics? And be careful what you wish for with roller-hockey...roller-blading is seriously being considered by the IOC. Personally, I would love to see beach cricket in the Games and I'd swap the proper football comp for beach football. Actually, do you know what? Let's move the whole Games to the beach. Open water swimming, volleyball, running races, long jump etc etc
StuartBlack, you're right, it is a modern world, although I was perhaps getting a bit carried away there. The actual "coming out" I was referring to, though, was the more American election sense of the word....I was always hearing things on the news about such and such a person/state/super delegate "coming out" for Hilary or Obama. Anyway, I'm happy to say it loud and proud, I like handball.
Complain about this comment
hello folks
I live just outside Lemgo in Germany and Handball is very big here.I´ve never played it but it´s a mixture between indoor rugby and basketball. It´s a great spectator sport as I witnessed during the last world championships which germany won in great style. Christian schwarzer would make an excellent trainer for the national team in Britain and if he´s serious the british team should take him up on it.
Complain about this comment
Do Britain get an automatic place in 2012 for handball? I can't see them qualifying otherwise.
Sorry to the handball followers out there, but I would rather have rugby sevens at the Olympics. It has all the entertainment qualities mentioned but it so much better as a spectacle than handball. I guess the drawback is that not enough countries play sevens rugby, but it is growing all the time and with teams like Kenya and Georgia beating established nations its time in the Olympics may come.
When a full house of 30000 plus watch it at the Commonwealth Games and in Dubai and Hong Kong it is a proven crowd puller.
Complain about this comment
In my opinion part of handball's problem is the fact that it doesn't match up to some of the other sports mentioned from a spectator's point of view which might explain in part the BBC's reluctance to show more than the final stages.
It's a pity, as for me from a playing point of view, when compared to football and rugby union (sports I love to watch and play), handball is hard to beat. The whole team is involved the whole time; you simply can't drift out of a game and it's very fast and simple.
Another drawback we had when I played in England were facilities. While we had plenty of facilities appropriate for playing other sports, few sports halls could cater for a full sized handball court (this may have changed since I stopped playing). I played in Spain for two years where sports halls were built with handball dimensions automatically taken into account.
Complain about this comment
"Irfan Smajlagic" is an anagram of "facial jam rings".
Complain about this comment
Allowing that we are the hosts in 2012, we should be entering athletes in every event. I think we get automatic qualification for many, and frankly if we are to use the olympics to spur British sport forward, at grassroots and wolrd class levels, we shouldn't let any sport get left out.
For example we have no plans or programme for greco-roman wrestling according to the BWA, yet we have a number of people training and coaching in this country (mostly as a component of MMA). It would take a tiny level of resource (as part of the overall 2012 budget) to get this going and find some athletes willing to compete. I suspect this is simliar to other sports as well.
Perhaps we should woryy less about the opening ceremony and more about getting British athletes competing across the board?
Complain about this comment
drella23, good spot that. Do you think he was an impostor winding me up then? Outrageous.
RussellHadd, you might be right but I think it's more likely to be a combination of us not having a team here, and people not being familiar enough with the game and its stars for that not to matter. And I would include BBC people in that "people". I don't know colleagues that have seen much of it or tried it before. I think we're going to need some UK Sport funding to find some commentary talent for 2012.
getinthebath, as far as I aware we can enter every event as long as we meet some minimum standard criteria. I'm not sure what this is for handball but I know it's reasonably steep for basketball...although we are on course in that sport.
and killamajig, I couldn't agree more. You're the host nation, you enter every event. Simple as that. For me that is one of the whole points of being a host...it's that whole legacy of sport issue. Who knows who you can inspire by showing them a British team competing on a world stage in a new sport?
Complain about this comment
I think it's facinating to witness the scepticism people have towards handball in this country.
I started following rugby and cricket when I moved to this country many years ago and when I explain these sports to my handball-loving friends back home, they always treat me with the same sceptisism that people in this country seem to have with respect to handball.
But handball is a really exciting sport which demands everything from stamina and speed to strength and precision from the athletes. The game is very tactical, there is never a dull moment and most often it goes right to the wire. I really hope that it picks up in this country.
PS. I also hope that Twenty-20 cricket will be added to the Olympics in 2012. Go Adam Gilchrist!
Complain about this comment
I just wanted to reiterate my disappointment that some of the lesser known sports have received zero airtime so far. It's not as though there isn't space in the schedule - we have six 24 hour streams plus three TV channels.
For some reason we have had literally hours of some of the more obscure sports such as weightlifting and beach volleyball (well I can guess why the latter is popular), but not 30 seconds of handball!
I love the major events, but when you have regular two hour streams of uncommentated weightlifting, and many many looped highlight programmes, would it be so hard to put something else in instead?
I've never seen a game of handball, but I would love to, and I think the BBC is failing to generate the interest in some of the lesser sports that we need in order to do our best in 2012.
Complain about this comment
Proper salutations to anyone who has the talent and drive to make it to the Olympics.
So, with no personal insult to the men and women who play handball, it reminded me of dodge ball, a game played in US phys ed classes for decades.
As indoor volleyball begat beach volleyball, let handballers have a go at dodgeball in 2012! Bikinis optional.
Complain about this comment
As I live in Spain I see handball on the TV all the time. Fun to watch but I don't know enough about it yet...
I had a friend at University who grew up in South Staffordshire and played at school. Apparently there was an inter-school league in that area. That was 15 years ago though, it probably has been discontinued.
I would have thought it would be an easy game to introduce in schools... a small ball... football sala goals... easy. The kids would love it. Fast, active and plenty of show-boating opportunity
Complain about this comment
Hi, i am studing a PE Degree and would like to get involved in playing handball as a begginer,
I am from Telford In SHropshire and Wonderered if anyone could point me in the right direction?
Complain about this comment
I was trained for 4 years in Handball by two dedicated and experienced coaches between 1986 and 1990. My team went on to win a youth tournament... IN THE MIGHTY GB!!!
What's the problem??? Not that I'm Olympic material but I'd bet there are loads with a background playing handball who'd relish the chance to get stuck into playing the game seriously again.
Ok TV coverage is important but there's more going on than meets the eye in UK sport. I bet we get a brilliant and experienced team together from existing players.
Personally I remember the game to be really exciting. Training hard and not getting rained off every other week did wonders for my fitness levels and eventually cured me of pretty serious asthma.
Complain about this comment
Hi everyone caring about Handball in general, first of all I would like to thank Matt Slater for giving us this great opportunity to chat about the current status of this great sport in the UK, specially now that everyone can have a better idea of what it looks like through the Olympics in Beijing and therefore in the future event hosted here in 2012.
I'm actually speaking on behalf of Great Dane Handball Club in London, as a current player/coach: yes, there is handball in the UK! You can check our website for more information and you will see how some competitions have been around for quite a long time now...We have an English League, a British Cup and we even participate in the European Challenge Cup!!...without forgetting about the good fun Beach Handball in Weymouth ;-)
We are an amateur entity with both women and men teams, which have to pay for any single expense that this hobby (so far) requires us, like the rest of Handball family in this country and others (i.e. USA). I have personally witnessed the passion for this sport from many different people in the world willing to pay for their practices and games costs since I've been playing in places where the situation is quite sadly similar, but also in Spain at a semi-professional level, so I've pretty much experienced both sides of the coin and I know what it takes...
I can also confirm the issue commented by RussellHadd about the lack of facilities with a properly sized handball court in the UK because we're currently having a hard time to find a convenient one in London itself. We have been playing for several years in the Leyton Sports Center (East London) that was built out of some Lottery Funding for Sports a few years ago and that has been nominated by London 2012 as the Olympic training venue for Handball. However, they have just increased the actual price of its rent for this coming season, which will make quite difficult for us -who basically play for fun- to afford it throughout the year. If anyone knows of any reasonable hall in terms of size and cost, please let us know.
Last but not least, there has indeed traditionally been a big lack of interest by the media to cover any handball event in the country due to several factors, but this blog could potentially be the starting point for a new era where the public community may discover the beauty of this spectacular sport that we all love when we watch or play it. Simultaneously, it could also help developing a healthier life-style for kids, getting them off the streets, far from drugs, drinks and gangs, which is such a big deal nowadays in our society. We really need an effort from anyone that could somehow collaborate in this quest: we are trying to reach Football Clubs, Corporations and Councils to prove that we have something to offer, to fight for and we truly hope we will make this finally happen! Come and try it, share with us your ideas or feedback: any help will be much appreciated, from any age, gender or race. The sport has no human barriers, anyone can play it and Handball has everything to be successful, it's always fun!
Cheers
Complain about this comment
Matt, great to see that somebody from the BBC is taking an interest in handball at the Olympics, maybe you could say to your bosses how many people are interested in the sport here and would really like to see more handball from the olympics.
My club is quite a young club, starting 6 years ago with a group of 6 kids, but now has over 50 players from infant school kids through to senior level. Many of them hoped that they could see some high level handball during the olympics but can't see any of the matches on BBC without sattelite or cable. How can we encourage young people to take up the sport if they have no role models to look up to. After the Olympics in Athens, some of us made copies of videos (off of Eurosport, again on satelite) for the kids and they loved watching a top level game. The BBC really does need to improve it's coverage of smaller sports.
Maybe you could try to encourage your bosses to give a little bit more coverage to handball in this country even if it is a one off event like the Brittish Cup finals day or a highlights programme from the European Champions League (yeah, it's not just a football thing!).
This leads on to another point. Creating a handball team for GB in 2012 is not just about grabbing some big guys and hoping for the best. The "Sporting Giants" wasn't the first part of the development of team GB it wasn't even the second but it certainly is a good idea to get people who have the right physical traits into the game here.
One of tha original group of 6 kids that started my club is now a member of the GB Handball programme based in Aarhus and probably wouldn't have made it if it was based on height alone but he's a very good line player and won promotion with his Danish club last season.
Our biggest rivals also lost quite a few young, local players that they had developed over quite a number of years.
Handball has been played in Britain for quite a long time but the 2012 Olympics is an opportunity for the sport to develop and expand in this country but that will only happen if the right support is given to grass roots handball in Britain and if the media start to realise that there are sports beyond football, rugby and cricket.
If you enjoyed watching handball in Beijing, then why don't you help us start to raise awareness of the sport in Britain, starting with a little bit more coverage from the BBC ;-)
About the comments from Thierry Omeyer and Christian Schwarzer, Omeyer is one of two goalkeepers who could lay a claim to being the best handball keepers ever, the other being Germany's Henning Fritz, so for him to be positive about GB competing in 2012 and say that it is possible to compete with the big guys of the sport, then we really should take that as a good sign and a big complement.
Schwarzer coming over here would be unbelievable but while he would make a great coach for the national team, I think having somebody of his stature in GB handball would be best used to encourage young kids and go round all the clubs at grass roots level and help to develop and improve the game all accross the country and not just at elite level.
In footballing terms that would be handballs equivelant of having Pele going round coaching youth teams all over the country! What more encouragement would any young player need?
Jordi, spot on with the comment about facilities. Having played against you guys a couple of times I can say that having a full sized court in such a big hall gives you guys a bit of an advantage over teams who train on cramped basketball sized courts that scrape the walls both in the sense of being used to the full sized court but also psychologically as well.
It's a great facility and you really should do all that you can to keep playing handball there, it's a great place to play (at least when we don't consider results :-( !!).
I wouldn't agree about people having a better idea of what the sport is like because nobody has seen any of it yet!
With the 6 streams going 24 hours a day, it's a bit pathetic that the BBC can't find at least a short update from ALL the olympic sports throughout the course of the games. Whatever happened to BBC's promises of choosing your sports and "comprehensive" coverage of the games?
Anyway, enough bashing the BBC's lack of coverage, but if you are interested in handball, check out the 606 forum and leave a thought or two.
Complain about this comment
As a dane (who as most danes love handball) I can tell you, that handball is extremely interesting and thrilling, even if you don't know the rules very well. Handball is the second most popular sport in denmark next to football and personally I find it far more interesting than football since there are many more goals and a game can be won even if you're quite far behind because of this. The rules are indeed easy to learn, but I don't agree that it is easy to learn to play. It takes years to learn the moves, technique and some people never learn it. I know since I've played since I was a kid. Actually most handball stars start playing around the age of 3 or 4. But don't let that stop you, because a few are born talents. I've played with a canadian and an american, who had never played and were really good. Also I noticed, that the article was mainly talking about mens handball, allthough womens handball are also popular in many countries, especially Denmark, Norway and several of the eastern european countries as well as south korea. (Denmark has won the last three olympics, but will unfortunately not win this time around:-(. So I must say, that you are really missing out on something, if you write it off without giving it a chance. To me (and many others) it is the greatest sport in the world (though I realize many other people probably feel the same way about their own favourite sports:-) Therefore, we will be looking forward to seeing the brits play in Aarhus and hope to see you at the Olympic handball matches 2012!
Complain about this comment
There is already trouble ahead for English/GB handball: apart from having to play against the classy Danes, they will also have to play against Germany, who have been European and World champions quite a few times over the last century...
Seriously: There is not enough time for GB handball to develop sufficiently to even raise a half creditable team come 2012. The only way to develop good treams properly is to have a well established pyramid-like league structure of several levels, in all regions of GB. The German model would be an excellent starter to copy. I guess the Danish version is similar. Grass roots handball: start in schools.
And you do NOT need the big boys from rugby or basketball, as has been suggested here, to become a good handballer and to build a good team.
Complain about this comment
Maschoe1 wrote: Denmark has won the last three olympics, but will unfortunately not win this time around.
The fact is:
1996 Atlanta - Croatia
2000 Sydney - Russia
2004 Athens - Croatia
Complain about this comment
Jordi, qaaqaa80, maschoe, krautbecker et al, lovely stuff lads. Always nice to get a bit of positive info.
I'm not sure how much sway my opinion has with the red-button boys but I can always ask.
It's also good to know I spoke to the right people Omeyer and Schwarzer were both lovely blokes and I saw Omeyer on TV this morning playing another blinder against the Russians.
All the best for the future chaps. I think it's a cracking sport and will be looking out for its progress.
Complain about this comment
answer to tanaja65's post
No I did not write that denmark has won the olympic championship for MEN 3 times, but the olympic championship for WOMEN. I was talking about how many people talk about mens handball as the only sort of handball there is, when womens handball is, and has, in fact been more popular for years in some countries (as has been the case with denmark for a long time).
Complain about this comment
Matt,
You obviously have more sway than you think with the red button boys at the BBC. I watched the very thrilling Norway v South Korea game last night followed by the Russia v Hungary game through the red button. So a big well done from me. You can't beat last second goals for a bit of controversy.
Hope there's more to come.
Complain about this comment
Aarhus?
Would that be "Aarhus, in the middle of our street?"
Complain about this comment
Iceland will compete against France for the Gold on Sunday.
And it will broadcast in Iceland at 7:45 local time ,in the morning.
Movie theaters will show the game ,where movies are usually shown - and it will be free.
Everybody will be awake that early.
Today ,when the game was on ,when Iceland won Spain,everything stopped -
While the game was on - there was no activity at the Icelandic Stock More.. Exchange.
After the game ,cars where driving with Icelandic flags around town.
And tonight - as you can see on the video - there where still some with the flag ,and people where going downtown - to celebrate.
But there was also a cruise liner leaving town - mabey it was a French Ship -- or Spanish !
Read this first !
Iceland has won three medals - since the beginning of modern
Olympics. -- 1 silver and 2 bronce.
Triple jump in 1956, judo in 1984, pole vault in 2000.And since we are only about three hundred thousand that live
here in Iceland - it will be nice to win France ( population 60 million )
Complain about this comment
View these comments in RSS