Olympic watch: July 16, 2012.

The LAT would like for you to know that the United States is not fielding teams in all the Olympic sports. Notable exceptions: soccer (the US team was eliminated), men’s field hockey, and team handball.

Interesting aspects:

  1. “Team handball” is apparently a thing.
  2. “…in 2006, the sport’s governing body was decertified by the USOC”.
  3. There is apparently such a thing as “professional handball”, at least in Germany.
  4. “…imagine LeBron [James] and [Derrick] Rose and others like him playing handball. It wouldn’t take long, with proper coaching and funding, to get those guys competing at a level needed to earn a trip to the Olympics.” Maybe, guy, but I’m not sure the skill set that makes you good at basketball translates to being Olympic level at handball, team or solo.
  5. The guy who currently runs USA Team Handball is David Gascon. Perhaps you know him better as LAPD Cmdr. David Gascon, former second-in-command of the department, and the guy who went on TV to announce O.J. was a fugitive. (I wanted to embed video, but I can’t find any on YouTube.)

The WP would like for you to consider what happens to athletes who don’t make the team. Do they defer their dreams until 2016? (Not if you’re a baseball or softball player; those sports ain’t coming back in 2016.) Do you go pro on the woman’s boxing circuit?

“Yeah, I won a gold medal. Big deal,” [Decathlete Bryan] Clay said. “I still have to pay rent, still have to change diapers, still have to mow the lawn. In the grand scheme of things, the gold medal is awesome, but to live a full life, you need a lot more.”

Before enlightenment: chop wood, carry water.

One Response to “Olympic watch: July 16, 2012.”

  1. A. T. says:

    You might be interested to know that former Houston Rocket Hakeem Olajuwon, a member of the Basketball Hall of Fame, played competitive team handball. He was a star soccer and handball player throughout high school. He only started playing basketball during his senior year of high school, after a basketball coach noticed the tall athletic student and talked him into joining the team.

    I know this because I have friends who actually follow the sport of team handball, and they dragged me to a tournament in Houston a few years ago.