While you watch the World Championships here’s a couple of suggestions to supplement your viewing with a little audio.

Following this past summer’s Men’s Pan American Championships I interviewed the Head Coach for that event, Christian Latulippe, both before and after the event.  In the first interview, we discussed his previous experience coaching the U.S. Women’s team and coaching club handball in France.  In the 2nd interview we discussed some of the issues affecting the sport’s development in the U.S.  With Latulippe now announced as the Women’s national team coach these discussions are worth revisiting.

Interview with Christian Latulippe (8 June 2012): Link

Interview with Christian Latulippe (27 June 2012):  Link (Development discussion starts after 26:00 minute mark)

Rugby Mag has an interesting discussion regarding issues and conflicts between grass roots development and national team support in that sport.   It’s always amusing to me how almost every discussion that occurs in rugby circles has a direct Team Handball parallel.   Seriously, just replace “rugby” with “team handball” as you listen and see how often the discussion still makes perfect sense.   A new parallel that I hadn’t heard before was the lack of organized competition between Canadian and American rugby clubs.  The first part of the podcast discusses an inner city rugby program and documentary file.  The most relevant discussion from a Handball/Rugby context starts at around the 42:00 mark.

Rugby Mag Podcast (Jan 2013): Link

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 43:55 — 10.1MB)

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Shoeless Joe Jackson, Barry Bonds, Lance Armstrong and Nikola Karabatic. 4 athletes forever tarnished by their actions.

John Ryan and Christer Ahl discuss the Champions League, Online and TV viewing options and the upcoming World Championships.  Also an extended rant on Nikola Karabatic and the Montpellier betting scandal.   (Let’s just say he’s no longer John’s favorite player.)

THN (4 October, 2012): The Karabatic and Montpellier saga – a follow-up: Link

THN (2 October 2012) “Rien ne va plus!”: Karabatic and teammates betting that their own team would lose – but did they then lose intentionally? : Link

THN (28 July, 2012): 2012 Olympic Preview:  Link  (Note the “Whither Karabatic” paragraph)

RTL website page with articles on the Montpellier scandal: Link

London hands over the Olympic Flag to the IOC.

John Ryan and Christer Ahl discuss a potpourri of Olympics Handball topics to include some top level analysis of the Women’s and Men’s competition, the competition format, NBC’s TV/Web production and the earlier podcast interview with the U.S. 1972 Olympic team.  The podcast also includes a brief discussion on the recent IHF Super Cup in Qatar.

New York City Team Handball Club players pose with their latest national title trophy in Times Square

A new documentary focused on the current U.S. Club National Champions, the New York City Team Handball Club, is in the final stages of editing.  The film focuses on the multi-cultural aspects of the team which includes expats from all over the world.  In this 30 minute interview, Co-Director, Ben Teitelbaum discusses the film and its genesis.

New York Times (1 Sep 2012):  Unified, in America, by an International Sport

“Home Court” Official Website:  http://handballfilm.com/

New York City Team Handball Club Website: http://newyorkcityteamhandball.com/

THN Commentary from 2009 on Team Handball Related Movies: https://teamhandballnews.com/2009/12/in-search-of-a-handball-invictus/

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72 Team Handball Olympians (From left to right: Vinny Dicalogero, Rick Abrahamson, Dennis Berkholtz, Jim Rogers and Joel Voelkert

This past weekend members of the 1972 Men’s Olympic Team Handball squad gathered in Las Vegas for their 40 year reunion.  Vinny Dicalogero, Rick Abrahamson, Dennis Berkholtz, Jim Rogers and Joel Voelkert sat down with me to reminisce about their “glory days.”  How the team was formed, how they prepared for the games, their qualification tournament in front of a packed house in Elkhart, Indiana, their experiences in Munich and their thoughts about what’s happened with Team Handball in the U.S. in the past 40 years.It’s an hour long, but well worth the history listen.  I suggest you use it as your sound track while watching the 2012 Olympics online.

1972 Results

Group Play (0-3)
USA vs. Hungary 15:28 (8:16)
USA vs. Yugoslavia  15:25 (9:11)
USA vs. Japan 16:20 (9:9)

Placement 13-16th place
Semi: USA vs. Spain 22:20 (8:11)
Final: USA vs. Denmark 18:19 (6:12)

Overall Placement: 14th out of 16 teams

Surprising Brazil wins their Group; Up next defending champion, Norway in the Quarterfinals

Women’s Group play has just concluded and the Men have just one more round of games.  NBC Commentator and 1996 Olympian Dawn Allinger Lewis discusses the upcoming women’s quarterfinals and the men’s results so far.  Podcast length is 15 minutes.