More than 10,500 athletes from 206 countries – including Kosovo and South Sudan for the first time – are expected to compete for 306 sets of medals in 28 sports. Rio is the first city in South America to host the Summer Olympics and the beautiful vistas of Ipanema Beach and Sugarloaf Mountain will be juxtaposed against serious water quality issues, poverty and crime in the favelas and concerns over the Zika virus.
Handball was introduced as an Olympic sport for men in Berlin in 1936 but was dropped right after and was reinstated on German soil again in 1972 in Munich. Women’s handball competition was introduced in Montreal in 1976. That was also the only year that Canada has participated in the sport at the Olympics. No sniff of a medal.