While European handball may be unpopular in Australia, those familiar with the game says it’s the best team sport in the world.
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00:00 Fast, physical and loud. For those who've never seen a handball game, it might come
00:07 as a surprise.
00:07 We get a lot of the, "Oh, you play like four square handball." I didn't know they had
00:14 trainings for that or Australian teams. It's like, "No, no, not that type of handball."
00:20 And they thought it's netball, so they started to, "Yeah, yeah, I know it." You're like,
00:25 "No."
00:26 Handball to people who have never seen it before is pretty much water polo on land.
00:30 Handball is played in more than 183 countries, with players in the European professional
00:35 leagues paid millions. Muhammad Ali, who moved to Australia from Egypt little more than a
00:40 month ago, has gone head to head with the best players in the world. He's played professionally
00:45 in the Egyptian leagues and is part of the country's national team at the Tokyo Olympics.
00:50 Now he's a member of the Canberra side, playing at the Australian club championships.
00:55 I thought it's like a social comp. We're going to meet each other and just have fun, but
00:59 it turned out to be a high level competition.
01:03 Australia's handball teams, both men and women, have never qualified for an away Olympic Games,
01:09 only competing at Sydney in 2000 because they were from the host country. Founder of the
01:13 Canberra Handball Association, Tape Ramadani, is just one of the few Australian handball
01:18 Olympians.
01:19 The Olympic Games was a massive buzz. It's still fresh in my mind.
01:25 Tape sees participation figures spike in Canberra during Olympic years, but says it's a lack
01:30 of funding and appropriate facilities that prevents the sport from reaching its potential.
01:34 I'd like to see, first of all, that we get better venues in Canberra especially, and
01:39 I would like to see more coaches help us support and grow the sport in Canberra.
01:44 With the 2032 Brisbane Olympics approaching, the rare chance to represent Australia on
01:48 the Olympic stage might come for budding handballers.
01:52 "BISMET!" "BISMET!" "GO!"
01:56 [BLANK_AUDIO]