ACOG - handball - IBM

Olympic Handball Overview

A unique cross between basketball, hockey and soccer, handball will be contested during the Olympic Games for the eighth time for men and sixth for women in 1996. Invented in Europe in the early 1900s, handball made its Olympic debut as an outdoor sport during the 1936 Olympic Games in Berlin, but did not resurface as a permanent part of the Olympic Programme — and in its current form — until Munich in 1972. A women's tournament was added four years later in Montreal.

The sport sprung up in Germany in the late 19th century and spread following World War I. Not surprisingly, Europeans have dominated play at the international level. Only the Korean women — with victories in 1988 and again in 1992 — have broken the European stranglehold on Olympic gold. In Atlanta, 12 men's teams and eight women's squads will compete for medals in a tournament which stretches for 11 days and will be contested at two venues. As the host nation, the United States returns to the men's draw for the first time since 1988 in Seoul, while the U.S. women are making their fourth straight Olympic appearance.

This is an official publication of The Atlanta Committee for the Olympic Games Sports Publications Department. Written by Jennifer Knight and Dianna Drayson. Special thanks to Mark Vinson and the U.S. Team Handball Federation.


Olympic Factoid
Pin trading was one of the most popular Olympic sports, with more than 1.2 million pins changing hands during the Games in the Coca Cola Pin Trading Center at Centennial Olympic Park.