I’ve been on a team handball jag since before the Olympics started and all the more so when I found out that Iceland was in the mens tournament.

Iceland lost the gold medal match to France 28-23 to get the silver. The team became a media of a media sensation with pub in the NY Times, International Herald Tribune and USA Today.

I tivo’d USA’s coverage of the final because of the lousy time slot they gave it. Earlier I compared team handball hockey and basketball but after watching some of the water polo I think that might be a better comparison; they beat the hell out of each other in both sports.

It really was a great story in terms of the excitement on the ground in Iceland and the notion that a country of 300,000 can successfully compete against countries with millions of people–a great underdog story.

On a related Nordic note Norway won the womens tournament.

If you say them play; not too shabby for them by any means.

Last 5 posts by Roger Nusbaum

• The Big Picture for the Week of November 15, 2009 - November 14th, 2009
• Process Drilldown - October 23rd, 2009
• Sunday Morning Coffee 10-18-09 - October 18th, 2009
• A Little Followup From This Morning - October 8th, 2009
• Wednesday Roundup - October 7th, 2009