Handball

Many of you probably saw the piece in the sports pages of Sunday Times this past weekend on the U.S. handball team: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/09/02/sports/unified-in-america-by-international-…

There used to be two sports I used when discussing squash and the Olympics: table tennis and badminton. Now I get to add handball. All three are in the Games and yet are miniscule, barely visible stars in the American sporting firmament. The Times reported that only eight hundred people play competitive handball in the U.S. Eight hundred. And this is a sport that has been in the Olympic Games since 1972. Forty years and less than a thousand adherents. 

For comparison, USATT has about ten thousand members (joined Olympics in 1988) and USA Badminton has less than half that (joined in 1992). Squash’s Mike Barnett can give specific numbers, since his Railstation software manages the badminton membership system.

There is no doubt that if squash got into the Olympics, it would be a good thing with many obvious and not-so-obvious benefits. But for a long time some have acted like the Olympics are a sure-fire, automatic golden goose. It is not so simple, as any handball pivot will tell you. 

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