Rock Paper Scissors Gold

A Morning Jolt of Icelandic Team Handball

This Week’s Top 10 WaPo Sports Stories: Phelps Week

A Few Words About Olympic Parties
Sadly, I didn’t spend as much time this month at wild, champagne-pouring-from-the-rafters parties as I had anticipated. In fact, mostly I either skipped the parties, or forgot about the parties, or spent the parties standing outside on red carpets and marveling at the prodigious size of Beijing insects that were [...]

Women’s Soccer Gold Medal Quotes
Still working on a few things over in Beijing, where it’s 5 a.m. and counting, but I figured I’d put up a few quotes from a very happy, very gold-colored U.S. post-game mixed zone. Here’s the game story.
The medal ceremony, if you didn’t see, was endless; the Brazilians looked morose, [...]

Gone Fishin (for Tinned Cod)
Hey, I was supposed to do this earlier, but just a little heads-up that neither I nor anyone else will be posting new entries here for a couple days. Need some space to let the smog clear.
Starting after Labor Day, my focus will shift squarely to Fred Smoot, the Wizards’ [...]

Links of the Day
Lindsay Applebaum here with a quick roundup of today’s Olympics-related linkage:
- Michael Phelps is responsible for childhood obesity. What a jerk. (L.A. Times)
- Tiki Barber did not say what we think he said…or did he? (Newsday)
- Phelps chooses Stephanie Rice over Lindsay Lohan. (AOL Fanhouse)
- Another heartwarming tale of steroid abuse. (Five [...]

Scenes From Iceland’s Handball Triumph

Iceland Handball’s Final Opponent

Will face Icelandic Vikings.
To be honest, I wanted to like the French men’s handball team. For one thing, they play an extremely appealing and skillful brand of handball. But more to the point, they have this tradition of operating under grandiose team nicknames at major competitions. This dates primarily from the [...]

Icelandic Handball: Magic Elves, Cured Shark and Existentialism