USA Team Handball The U.S. women's handball team (in red) lost to tourney favorite Brazil in its Pan Am Games opener.Handball. It's called the most American sport that Americans don't play. Fast-paced, high-scoring and woefully underrated in the U.S., handball combines elements of basketball, soccer, water polo and lacrosse, and is played on an indoor court with six players plus a goalie on each side. Jam-packed with running, jumping, throwing, aggressive defense and full-body contact, handball embodies everything American sports fans love. While 39 million people in 159 nations play the sport, most Americans think of handball as the game you play in elementary school gym class, hitting a little rubber ball against a wall.
"It is so exciting to run into an American who actually knows what handball is," said Kathy Darling, a 6-foot-2 former track and field and basketball standout at Johns Hopkins who transitioned to handball after her collegiate career.
The U.S. has not made an Olympic appearance in handball since 1996, when, as the host nation, it automatically had a spot. But with a strong showing at the Pan Am Games in Guadalajara, Mexico, this week, the Americans could get closer to securing a long-awaited Olympic berth. The winner of the tourney automatically qualifies for the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, and the second- and perhaps third-place teams earn spots in an Olympic qualification tournament. It will be tough for the U.S. to win a medal in Guadalajara, given that the field boasts handball powerhouses like Brazil and Argentina -- countries that have professional leagues. But the American team is used to being an underdog.
Because handball is relatively unknown in the U.S., securing sponsorships and financing is a daunting challenge -- the sport is caught in a chicken-and-egg cycle when it comes to growth and development.
"It's hard to get funding without awareness of the sport, and we need some international success to get that awareness, but we need more funding to achieve that kind of success," said Darling, who has played for the U.S. national team since 2005. "It's a vicious cycle that's hard to break out of."
Members of the national handball team often pay for their own food, lodging and transportation throughout the year, unlike athletes in swimming, gymnastics, track and field, basketball and other media-favored sports that are fully funded by the U.S. Olympic Committee and their national governing bodies. In preparation for the Pan Am Games, several handball players created their own training camp in Colorado and relied on friends' couches to make it happen.
"Two of our teammates drove across the country to get [to Colorado Springs]," said Jennifer Fithian, a former Binghamton University basketball player who has been on the national team since 2006. "It's amazing to see how dedicated to the sport these athletes are."
Although handball remains a tiny fish in the big ocean of U.S. sports, it is immensely popular in Europe -- and the European connection is what may give the U.S. a chance to do well in Guadalajara. More than a dozen of the U.S. national team members play for European professional teams during the regular season, and the experience has been invaluable.
"Every day I am pushed to the brink of my handball capacity," said Fithian, who plays for Mainz in Germany's third league. Two years ago she and her husband, Jordan, who is on the men's U.S. national team, moved to Germany to realize their dreams of playing professionally. To make ends meet, they work at an international Montessori school and fit in team workouts, practices and games in the evenings. "We leave by 7 a.m. and don't get home until 11:30 p.m.," Jennifer Fithian said. "It's an intense schedule but it is definitely worth it. It has been an amazing adventure."
While American players are honing their skills overseas, the U.S. national team also has been recruiting European players with dual citizenship to play for the red, white and blue. Karoline Borg, an outstanding right back with a killer left-handed shot (lefties are worth their weight in gold in handball), was a key to the U.S. qualifying for the Pan Am Games. Borg, 21, grew up in a small town outside of Oslo and plays in the Norwegian elite league, one of the best in the world.
"Growing up in Norway, you either play soccer or handball," Borg said. "I started playing when I was 8 years old and spent more of my childhood at the handball court than in my own house." Her mother, Nancy, who died when Borg was 9, was American. "I love being able to honor my mother by playing for the U.S. team," she said. "I feel just as American as I do Norwegian."
Although the addition of athletes with overseas experience has dramatically improved the depth and talent of the U.S. team, the players struggle financially. European contracts rarely include more than a modest stipend, but the athletes insist it is worth it. Darling, who has an engineering degree from Johns Hopkins, spent a month living out of her suitcase and sleeping on a friend's couch when she couldn't find an apartment she could afford in France.
"I was losing money when I was playing there, but if you want to get better, you need to be playing at that level day in and day out," the 30-year old said. "Having the honor of putting on that USA jersey is incredible and makes all of our sacrifices worth it. I don't want to stop until someone says I have to."
Dana Beck is a freelance writer and freediving instructor who lives in Brooklyn, N.Y.
