Iceland was defeated by France 28-23 in the very closely watched final game of the Olympic men’s handball game which brought the country on Sunday morning to a standstill.
Iceland managed to take the lead only for a few minutes at the beginning of the first half but then paid dearly for concentrating on their technique rather than responding to France’s defence.
The Icelandic handball team first appeared at the Summer Olympic Games in 1972 when it came 12th. Beijing 2008 Olympics was their tenth Olympic participation with the best result so far; they came 4th in 1992.
“We are only 300,000 people,” Gudmundur Ingvarsson, president of the Iceland Handball Federation, said. “What do you expect?”
France’s only Olympic medal in this European-dominated sport was a bronze in 1992. They got three gold medals – two in the World Handball Championship (in 1995 and 2001) and one in the European championship (2006).
Iceland has never won a gold medal in any Olympic sport. That includes the Winter Games, despite the seeming advantage of having a winter-sport playing surface in the nation’s name. Iceland has won three Olympic medals in its history, all in individual summer sports — a triple-jump silver in 1956 (Vilhjalmur Einarsson), a judo bronze in 1984 (Bjarni Fridriksson) and a pole-vault bronze in 2000 (Vala Flosadottir).
James is just a snobbish bad loser !
Iceland has a great great handball team, i’ve bet against it in the first olimpic day, i’ve lost :) obviously and watch it in the next game, i’ve loved it and i was sure that they could win a medalm evan the gold only with a little focus
I’m from Romania and our girls are great at handball, and i belive i wouldn’t have watched any game of mens handball if it wasn’t for ICELAND.
They were so great that i wanted to know every detail of the final that i was forced to miss, so i’ve ended up here. And i could not go away without posting a comment.
Iceland was great and i think that only frech people wanted France to win in the final evrebody else who watch it was on the Icelandic side.
Greetings
What a sour grape James (second message) is . The guy from France has the right to be happy for France that won the game. He also made the effort to come to an islandic newpaper/forum to say congratsfor the silver and the only thing you have to say to him is that sarcastic reply? You show poor sportsmanship. France won and deserved it 200%. Iceland tried its best.
You sir James, you deserve only the sour medal.
Congrats. to Iceland for wining silver medal in handball. Gold in 2012
til hamingju strakar!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am an American of Icelandic descent. On Saturday night I saw on the Olympic website that Iceland was playing for its first gold medal. I shared this with my teenagers, and we were so hoping you would get it. Congratulations on your accomplishments! We’ll be routing for you in 2012.
[…] Olympic News: France wins handball final and leaves Iceland with silver […]
Congratulations on winning the silver medal. I was hoping you would win the gold, but it’s an incredible accomplishment to have won silver. Congratulations, and now go celebrate!
well done, congratulations.
til hamingju.
gott kvöld.
mark hertoge
belgium
Wow. Granted, that was the first handball match I’ve ever watched, but I was really into it and was rooting for Iceland. I thought you guys were awesome. Congrats on the silver – I look forward to rooting you on in the 2012 gold medal match!
Laurent,
What a typical back-handed compliment from a Frenchman. Don’t hurt your arm patting yourself on the back while you tell us how well Iceland played.
Hello Iceland
I’m french and so happy for our gold medal
But Iceland had a fantastic team, you play “real” handball
Pity the match today was not really close but you made great games and surprised everybody
Bravo !!
Laurent