Håller handbollen på att få ett medialt genombrott på riktigt i USA?
Ni har kunnat läsa på Handbollskanalen om hur sociala medier svämmar över av positiva kommentarer från amerikanska tittare. Den så länge gömda och glömda sporten i USA tar amerikanerna med storm nu när den tack vare den tekniska utvecklingen blir mer och mer tillgänglig.
Allra senast så är det de två stora, riktigt stora, tidningarna Washington Post och The Herald som skriver enormt fint om handboll. Några utdrag:
Washington Post
U.S. athletes run fast, jump high, throw hard — why are we so bad at handball?
”The sport of team handball requires its competitors to run fast, jump high and throw balls at a target or to each other. It may be hopelessly ignorant and wildly jingoistic to say this, but after spending a day at Future Arena, it is impossible to leave without thinking it: The United States should be awesome at this.
It’s hard to figure why handball is basically invisible in the United States. Unfamiliarity is probably the only explanation. Handball refutes every standard American complaint about soccer. It’s easier to watch on television than hockey. A match takes about two hours less than a typical baseball game. It’s the kind of game kids make up in their backyard and play until darkness falls. There’s contact, excitement and a ball that is thrown rather than kicked. No stick or helmet is required. The rules are easy to learn.
In the past two days, Garcia-Cuesta has received 13 emails from former college athletes interested in handball as a path to the Olympics. He plans to hold a tryout at USA Handball’s headquarters in Auburn, Ala., on Oct. 15. And if Americans in Rio show interest?
“Give them my contact,” Cuesta said.”
The Herald
America needs team handball, and we need it now
”Late in a win over Montenegro, Spanish goalie Silvia Navarro took a shot, fired overhand at maximum velocity from about 3 feet away, squarely on the nose. A soccer player would have spent 10 minutes writhing in agony before getting stretchered off for an emergency rhinoplasty. (Soccer is a wonderful sport, but it’s true.) Navarro popped up, shook it off and threw the ball up the court without leaving the game. It was truly impressive. Top that, Phelps.
And you learn about what we call team handball and the rest of the world calls handball, one of those sports most Americans only see at the Olympics, like curling in the winter. The question is, why? It may not be a quintessentially American sport, but so much about it is quintessentially American.
We need a Manhattan Project for team handball in America, and we need it now.
It’s like a combination of the line of scrimmage on a running play and a really nasty Y pickup game full of elbows. And that’s the women’s version of the game. The men’s game borders on gladiator combat.
So, yes, we need handball, and quickly. Neither the U.S. men nor women qualified for Rio and USA Team Handball’s Twitter account has been dormant since February, which is a measure of the task ahead. We need NCAA sanctioning followed by handball diploma-mill prep schools. We need a professional league and replica jerseys and bobbleheads.
People will come. They’ll ignore the confusing rules and embrace the organized chaos. We can raise a new generation of handball players. America needs a sport that rewards being rude and pushy. Unlike soccer, where you have to use your feet and run a lot, these are things Americans are actually good at doing.”
