When was handball an olympic sport

By the 's there were barely any field handball participants, and in the IOC voted to add indoor handball to the Olympic program in the next editions. So finally, in in Munich, indoor handball as we know today was first played in the Olympic Games, with a men's event, which was won by Yugoslavia. The sport was a success, and a women's event was added right the next edition, in , when the Soviet union took home gold in both men's and women's.

Is Surfing an Olympic Sport? What are the Olympic Games? What are the rules of olympics? Who invented the Olympics? Is Handball An Olympic Sport? Previous Next. Handball was first introduced at the Olympic Games at the Olympics in Berlin see Field Handball , in a competition for men only, and was played outdoors on a grass surface.

The sport was dropped from the program after this single appearance, and not played again until , when field handball was again played, though this time as a demonstration sport see Field Handball The sport returned as an official sport for the Olympics, in its current format as an indoor sport. Each team has seven athletes on the court — six players and a goalie — with players attempting to score goals by throwing the ball past the opposing goalie.

Players almost exclusively move the ball using their hands, but they have other means for advancing and blocking it. A player may stop, catch, throw, bounce or stroke the ball in any manner and in any direction using their hands, fists, arms, head, body, thighs or knees. However, a player may not use any part of their body below their knees to play the ball unless it has been thrown directly at their legs. Players can hold the ball for up to three seconds and can take up to three steps while holding it, but goalies are exempt from this in the goal area.

Each handball game consists of two minute halves with a minute halftime.