Handball is a game that is characterized by speed, stamina and skill of the players. It was developed in Denmark, Sweden and Germany and was originally played outdoors as field handball. It made its first appearance at the Berlin 1936 Olympics. In 1972, it was converted into its modern form which is played indoors. Women's competition began in 1976 in Montreal.
The games are played on a 40m by 20m court which is the largest court of an indoor sport in the Olympics. The court is divided into two halves, with two D-shaped areas in each half. The smaller D near each goal is the box that only the goalie may stay in. The outer D marks the free throw line. Teams have 7 players each and they dribble a small ball with their hands. The goal is to get the ball into the opponent's net, which happens frequently, up to 50 times per match. Players may not enter the goalie box except by jumping into the air and must release the ball before they land on the ground. The game is divided into two 30 minute halves. Players may propel the ball with any part of the body above their knees but may only hold the ball for 3 seconds and must release the ball within 3 steps. Goalkeepers must also obey the 3 second/3 step rule.
In these Olympics, there will be 12 teams in both the men's and women's competitions. In the preliminary round, teams are divided into two groups of 6 teams and play each team in their group. Teams get 2 points for a win, 1 point for a draw, and 0 points for a loss. At the end of this round, the top 4 teams from each division enter the quarterfinals, and single elimination games lead to the gold medal match. In the knock-out round, if the game is tied at the end of regulation play, teams play two 5 minute overtimes. If it is still tied, teams participate in a 5 shot shootout. If there is no winner after those shots, the game moves to sudden death shots to determine the winner.
Players can be penalized for a number of infractions, including kicking the ball, playing too passively (no slowing down in this game!!!), or pulling the ball away from another player. If a foul is called, the other team gets a free throw (one player against the goalkeeper) from 7 meters. Severe fouls can cause players to be awarded yellow cards. If a player gets three yellow cards or in the case of a severe foul, he/she can be “sin-binned” which is a 2 minute suspension. If a player is “sin-binned” three times, a red card is issued and the player may not return to the match.
This cache is a small cammo container. Please bring your own pen. We didn't find anything clever to do with handball, so it's just hiding.
This was the place to be when it came out! It was fun to read about all the geocache-athletes who showed up to play Handball!!!
Co-FTF – Gold Medalists- $1 coin/25 cent coin- Hucks Hill and Team Peterson share the FTF honors!!!
TTF– Bronze Medalist– 1 cent coin- DJandthekids beat out the rest of the field!
***Honorable Mention goes out to the rest of the impromptu flash mob and the press (Boxman Crew who shared a photo)! It brought a big smile to our faces!