Olmps

Comaneci apparently drank bleach,a protest that was enough to persuade the government to allow her to train with Károlyi again.In 1981,however, he defected, and in November 1989, just weeks before the overthrow of the Ceausescu regime, Comaneci followed suit. Her escape was facilitated by Constantin Panait, a Romanian roofer living in Florida, whose price appeared to be that he should thereafter manage her affairs and never let her out of his presence.Comaneci soon extricated herself from Panait’s clutches: an old friend who had been a rugby coach in Romania intervened and invited her to live with his family in Montreal.

In 1996, Comaneci married the American Bart Conner, who had won two gymnastics golds at the 1984 Olympics.Today, the most famous gymnast in history runs a training facility in Oklahoma with her American husband. It’s name?The Bart Conner Gymnastics Academy.

The pre-tournament favourite for the all-round women’s gold at Moscow 1980 was Yelena Mukhina (USSR), who had beaten Comaneci and Kim to theWorld Championship title two years before. Two weeks before the opening ceremony, she broke her spine during floor practice and was paralysed from the waist down.. Mukhina had seen the tragedy coming..Already unhappy at having been rushed back into training after breaking a leg in 1979, she had expressed grave misgivings at her coaches’ insistence that she incorporate a ‘Thomas salto’ into her floor routine.. It was a mistimed attempt at this 1¾ somersault with 1½ twists that left her quadriplegic..

In Mukhina’s absence, the competition came down to a head- to-head between Yelena Davydova of the Soviet Union and Comaneci..The Romanian seemed to have done enough to win with a near-perfect performance on the beam, but after a furious debate lasting 28 minutes, the judges gave her a score of 9..85, leaving her 0..05 points behind Davydova.. Comaneci nevertheless took two golds and two silvers, while Nellie Kim again won a couple of golds..

American gymnasts exploited the Eastern European boycott of Los Angeles 1984 by winning five gold medals, including the men’s team and women’s all-round titles..The latter was secured by Mary Lou Retton in the only way possible – by scoring a 10 on the vault.. Los Angeles also saw the first Olympic appearance of

192 HOW TO WATCH THE OLYMPICS

Chinese gymnasts (they won five titles),and the debut of rhythmic gymnastics,which was surprisingly won by Lori Fung of Canada, who had only managed 23rd place at the preceding year’s World Championship..At the following Olympics, the rhythmic gold went to Marina Lobach of the USSR, who received a perfect score for each routine.. During the club exercise, she was saved by her pianist, who increased the pace to ensure she finished in the allotted time..

The gymnastic star of the Barcelona Games wasVitaly Scherbo of Belarus,who won six of the eight titles available to men,including four in a single day..Away from the swimming pool, no Olympian has won as many gold medals at one Games. . By 1994, Scherbo had claimed world titles in every discipline, a unique achievement that arguably makes him the greatest male gymnast of all time..As Scherbo’s triumph emphasised, the collapse of the Soviet Union had done little to harm the fortunes of the former nation’s gymnasts – the one-off Unified Team carried away four other golds..

At Atlanta in 1996, Kerri Strug of the USA did an imitation of Shun Fujimoto, performing her second vault in the artistic team event after badly damaging her ankle in her first.. Her score of 9..712 helped the so-called Magnificent Seven to the women’s team title.. But overall the Americans had to play third fiddle to the Ukrainians and Russians, who won four and three titles respectively..

The Sydney Games saw the Olympic debut of the men’s and women’s trampoline: both were won by Russians, as were the two rhythmic titles.. China won the men’s artistic team event and Romania the women’s..The latter came top of the artistic medal table at Athens 2004 by winning four of the six women’s events, but the performance of the Games came from Paul Hamm of the USA, who recovered from a fall on the vault to win gold in the men’s all-round competition by 0..012 points, the closest margin in the history of Olympic gymnastics..

Chinese gymnasts were the dominant force at Beijing 2008, winning all but one title in the men’s artistic division, plus two golds in the women’s events and both the trampoline titles..As was by now customary, Russia claimed both rhythmic golds..

make it to Germany. Having initially planned to leg it from the airport, they get swept up in the tournament and can’t resist playing a couple of matches first . . .

Forever the Moment, similarly based on real life, celebrates the brief period when the entire South Korean nation found itself gripped by an Olympic sport about which it normally doesn’t give a stuff.A cobbled-to- gether team of inexperienced youngsters,veterans pulled out of retirement and a sacked coach who decides to stay on as a player fights its way to the final in Athens, where it nearly, nearly pulls off a dramatic upset.The fact that the heroes fail to win makes a refreshing change but viewers are left with a feelgood glow all the same.

The Story of Handball

It wasn’t quite handball as we know it, but the

ancient Greeks certainly liked to chuck a ball around.. If this account in Homer’s Odyssey is anything to go by, they did it in a celestial and rather elegant manner:

They took at once in their hands the lovely ball

Which Polybos, with cunning art, had woven from purple wool. One cast this up to heaven to reach the sparkling clouds,

Bent hard back; the other then sprang high up in the air And caught it nimbly, ere his foot touched ground again.

Alexander the Great was known to enjoy sphairisterion, a Greek ball court game named after the boxing room in a classical gymnasium, and the Romans played ball in their baths and spas..Team games involving the throwing of balls continued through the Dark Ages..There are medieval accounts of ladies of the court tossing around ribbon-wrapped balls and cushions, and British knights were so partial to a form of handball that Kings Edward II and Henry VIII banned it for the detrimental effect it was having on archery practice. . Intriguingly, given Denmark’s pre-eminence in the modern sport, the Inuit of Greenland were also known to be fans, with records of their matches dating back to 1793..

Ancient Greek spot the (hand)ball competition

Modern handball emerged in the 1890s in two parallel forms.. Czech teachers created and set down the rules of Hazena,a seven- a-side game played on an indoor court.. Meanwhile in Denmark, where football had been banned in schools due to too many broken legs and windows, a PE teacher called Holger Neilsen, who had won fencing and shooting medals at the Athens Games, created Haandbol..An instant hit, it spread throughout Scandinavia, and its rules form the basis of the modern game..

The game further developed in fin de siècle Germany, where the gymnastic movement was a serious business, training minds and bodies for a powerful and regimented nation..The intransigent,ultranationalist proponents of gymnastics never reconciled themselves to ball games, but for those who did, Konrad Koch came up with raffballspiel. .This later evolved into torball, a game for the women’s branch of the gym, not unlike the Scandinavian version of handball.. In the 1920s, Carl Schelenz, a German PE professor, decided the game needed to be more masculine and revised the rules, creating an eleven-a-side sport to be played outside on a football field, with body checking allowed for the first time..

While Scandinavians and central Europeans continued to prefer the indoor version, the Germans began to organise international matches in the new format.. Given the opportunity to put on a demonstration sport at the 1936 Berlin Olympics, the regime opted for outdoor handball.. Predictably, the Germans walked the competition, beating Austria 10-6 in the final in front of 100,000 rain-drenched spectators to win the first and only field handball gold medal..

Game On: Handball Basics

The object of handball is to put the ball in your oppo-

nents’ net more often than they put it into yours..A match consists of two 30-minute halves separated by a 15-minute interval.. If the scores are level at the end of regulation time and a definitive outcome is required, up to two five-minute periods of

are played.. If the scores are still level at this point, a penalty shoot- out takes place,..

Olympic handball is played on courts 40m long by 20m wide, with 3m-wide goals pleasingly striped in the manner of barbers’ poles. The goal areas are bounded to the front by lines 6m from the centre of the goals, and to the sides by quarter circles.. Free throw lines curve across the court 9m from the goals, while pen- alty throw lines are 7m from the goals..

Each team has seven players: six outfielders and one goalkeeper.. Seven substitutes are allowed per side.. Players can be changed at any time during a match and as often as the coach wishes.. Each side is allowed a one minute time out period in each half but must be in possession of the ball when it is called..

Matches are officiated by two referees, who direct the action using various hand signals..The one denoting a two-minute suspension, for example, looks very like an earthy Anglo-Saxon gesture meaning ‘go away’..The refs have equal authority, which you might think would be a recipe for paralysis.. In fact, there are set protocols.. If they have different opinions about how an infraction should be punished, the more severe option must be taken.. If the refs cannot agree about a straight either-or, for instance which team should be awarded possession after the ball goes out of play, the matter is referred to the court judge..

Four Key Rules

No kicking: Handball is hands only, though goalkeepers can use their lower legs or feet to move the ball..The keeper is also the only player allowed to stand within the goal area..

Three steps to heaven: Players can take up to three steps with the ball, after which you must pass or dribble (by bouncing it)..

and penalty throw lines, the free throw is taken from the former.. For more serious misdemeanours, especially crossing into or playing the ball into your goal area, the official can award a penalty throw taken from the 7m line..

A player’s first reasonably serious foul or display of unsportsmanlike conduct gives rise to a warning, indicated by a yellow card..The next offence of a similar magnitude is punished by a two-minute suspension..A player who has not previously been warned can also be suspended if they commit a suitable offence and their team has accumulated three warnings in total.. Fighting and repeated or very serious fouls are punished by red cards and permanent expulsion..

The Finer Points

A Big Slice of Goal Pie

Nearly all of the action occurs around the goal ar-

eas, so expect a lot of goals – most games finish somewhere in the region of 28-24.. Following a game is partly about sensing the momentum of scoring and the balance of opportunities taken and missed over time, rather than the impact of any one goal..

Handball is a sport loaded against goalkeepers,with big nets,small balls and players as little as 6m away when throwing.. Nevertheless, keepers do make saves – and often spectacular ones..

The Arts of Defence and Attack

Take a look at the defenders – how are they organis-

ing themselves? Most start with a 6-0 formation with all the outfield players close to their goal area line, moving forwards and backwards to engage the opposition as the ball moves among them.. More aggressive teams will use a 5-1 or even a 4-2 formation in which one or two players consistently stand further out trying to disrupt the attack and force a mistake..

Given that you can’t use brute force to get round a defender, what can you do? Look for feints, swerves, high leaps and sudden body

checks as ways of gaining an inch of space from which to pass or shoot.. Players close to their opponents’ goal will also try spin-shots that bounce around defenders and goalkeepers..

Handball Goes to the Olympics

After the SecondWorldWar,Germany was temporarily

excluded from the international community and consequently lost control of international handball. .The new centre of power was Denmark..The IHF (International Handball Federation) was created in Copenhagen in 1946 and though the outdoor Germanic game hung on for a decade, the indoor game, now known as team or Olympic handball, became the international standard. . Not that anyone outside of continental Europe was taking much notice..The Anglo-Saxon world and Latin America were indifferent to handball and it was virtually unknown inAfrica andAsia.. Even in its heartlands, the culture of handball was unassuming and non-commercial..

Nevertheless, by the 1970s the sport had become sufficiently international to warrant inclusion in the Olympics..A men’s competition was introduced at the 1972 Games and a women’s followed at Montreal in 1976.. For the next twenty years, both events were dominated by Warsaw Pact nations, whose state-sponsored athletes consistently outperformed the amateurs of the West..

Since then, things have been stirring in the world of handball.. The sport has turned professional, withTV contracts worth tens and sometimes hundreds of millions of pounds..The men’s game is closely followed in Germany, France, Spain and Greece, while the women’s version has become the sporting phenomenon of the last decade in Denmark and Norway.. The Women’s World Handball Championship gets higherTV ratings in Denmark than any sporting event bar the football World Cup..The Posh and Becks of Norway are the celebrity couple Gro Hammerseng and Katja Nyberg, stalwarts of the women’s handball team..This westward shift in power, led by the all-conquering Danish women’s team (Olympic champions in 2000 and 2004), was confirmed at the Beijing Games, with France taking the men’s gold and Norway the women’s..