Olympic Dreams

I'm watching Misty May-Treanor and Kerri Walsh kick some serious arse right now. Serves the Brazilians right for kicking off the defending gold medalists that hold a 100+ game winning streak by claiming that they "have seniority". Now that's a serious WTF if I've ever seen one.

I've been telling all my basketball friends that I've discovered a sport where we could try to breach the Olympic playing field. Obviously the WNBA has staked its claim on the basketball court so that's not going to be likely for us. So where can we find our chance?

HANDBALL.

The idea came to me while watching that spectacular opening ceremonies. During the parade of nations, they showed the flag bearer for each country and the sport that the athlete participates in. Several times the profile said "Handball". Nbc has way more coverage online than ever before and I took advantage of it and watched a handball game. It's like basketball/lacrosse/rugby/soccer combined into one. It's probably easier for basketball players to cross over because
a) they have to dribble the ball when you want to move around
b) there's crazy passing in the perimeter where you're not allowed to step in but you can jump over the plane and have some alley-oop type shots/passes
c) fast breaks
d) awesome passes across the court
e) to score, you chuck the ball as hard as you can (usually) towards the goal -- where else will my awesome dodgeball skills come in handy?
Time Magazine agrees with me too.

There's no representation of the U.S. in the sport of handball this year. The last time we made a splash was in 1984 where I think we finished 4th. Seriously. We need to up our handball skills. How can we not be dominant in a team sport like this?

Unfortunately, I'm not the only thinking this. Looks like the U.S. softball team wants to do the same. I better try to find some handball clubs around Los Angeles. Who's with me?