Congrats... usa-australia is just over.
guess anne donovan was right, she built up a TEAM, outstanding defense, 40' concentration and a super bench.

i didn't even know who lawson was... :S

i'm sorry for australia though, they've never been in the match.

and by the way... russia third place. everyone's happy? :)

_____________________
..make it count..

hey, thanks for the handball shoutout again! and you guys really don't have to be worried about the whole, not seeing handball until 4 years later thing, because i'm sure there will be lots of members uploading matches online. (i'm not from europe and that's how i've been watching handball matches) so if you just follow the gro&katja thread here, or even better, hop over to our other forum : http://www.smfforums.com/forums/wwwgrohammersengcomforums/index.php

you'll be able to get your fix ;)

actually there's already a whole bunch of videos there... i think the earliest uploaded match is from 2003... or alternatively you can catch the matches on youtube. just search for the users ikast01 or haandbold1993. 

I'm sorry but I have to disagree about Usain Bolt, cause I just thought that he was happy when he did that gesture. When he started doing that the commentators were all like "AND USAIN IS GOING TO WIN! LOOK AT HIM, HE'S JUST PLAYING WITH THEM!"

I just have to agree with you Becca, I don't really like Federer either. I mean I have tried to like him, but I just can't. Don't really now why.

And you not being able to watch handball is just like us (Sweden) not being able to watch softball. I saw that you already got a good suggestion on how to be able to watch it, but is there anyone who knows how we can watch softball? I've always wanted to see the U.S team in action

I know we had our moments.  You didn't listen to us, we didn't listen to you, some harsh words were exchanged.  Mostly on our part.  Because I probably don't actually watch this vlog.  But I've got to give it to you.  You did an excellent job seeing greatness and potential where we didn't necessarily see it.  Kara Lawson may have been the best pick you made, other than Birdie. :)

Okay but was anyone else throwing up in their mouths a little at the ridiculous amount of Lisa Leslie/Candace Parker coverage?  Jeez!  There are other women out on the court you know.

"Don't ask what the world needs. Ask what makes you come alive, and go do it. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive." ~Howard Thurman

http://depts.washington.edu/aspuw 

NORWAY WHOOOO GOLDEN!!!!! (also happens to be Katja's 29th birthday so Happy Birthday Katja : )

Most amazing game ever in the history of sports today against russia.. sure hope you ladies were able to catch it! As for the regular season handball.. as a Canadian I can tell you that you do have access to handball throughout the season.. you may not be able to get live streams of the matches.. but the ABSOLUTELY FABULOUS ladies over at the Gro Hammerseng Forum upload EVERYTHING for us deprived North Americans. So you may have to download the matches but it is absolutely worth it.

And if you just so happen to be having handball withdrawl after the olympics are over I highly recommend going to Youtube which also has a lot of handball matches with Gro & Katja's club team Ikast (where they play in the Danish league) .. which are always great to watch : ) .. and since you mentioned the French goalie during the Olympics.. you may be pleased to know that her name is Valerie Nicolas and she played on the same team (Ikast) as Gro and Katja this past season so any of the Ikast games you find on Youtube will have all three of them! : D Happy Handball Hunting Ladies : )

Canadian OREO lover and Norway supporter.

Not an expert on handball myself but I'll add what I do know and let the more knowledgable members add the rest. 

There are 2 main leagues in women's handball:

The Danish league is called the Toms ligaen and considered the best league in the world for women's handball and also home to Ikast the handball team in which a lot of the Norwegian team play handball. As well as Gro and Katja, Raginhild Aamondt, Tonje Nostvold and Isabell Blanco from the NT play handball at Ikast. The team to beat in the Toms Ligaen is Viborg which is home to, not only the Lunde twins (the Norwegian goalie Katrine Lunde Haraldsen and no 9 Kristine Lunde) but the rather cute Rikke Skov - she's also openly gay, her wife quit handball to have the couples child.

The new league season starts on the 3rd of September, so not long to wait. Not all games are aired live on TV, but their are usually two ways to see any game that does air - either join the Gro forum and wait for one of the nice Danish members to upload the match or pay and subscribe to the website channel that shows it (usually either TV2 or NRK, one of the Danish members will hopefully confirm which channel) and watch a live stream of the match. You usually have to subscribe monthly though and the site is in Danish.

The second league is the Norwegian league called the Postenligaen. I don't really know much about this league apart from the two main teams are called Larvik and Byasen and that the rest of the NT players come from one of these two teams.

UFO has commented on this but the French Goalie is called Valerie Nicholas and she is great. I'm gutted that she won't be playing for Ikast next year, she is cocky and completely crazy but you have to love her.

If you want to watch some great league matches follow these links and download these matches:

http://www.smfforums.com/forums/wwwgrohammersengcomforums/index.php/topic,281.0.html

http://www.smfforums.com/forums/wwwgrohammersengcomforums/index.php/topic,335.0.html

http://www.smfforums.com/forums/wwwgrohammersengcomforums/index.php/topic,347.0.html

It's the playoff finals between Ikast and Viborg to see the winner of the Toms Ligaen last season. Fantastic matches.

Soccer
Okay i don't know if this has been mentioned but i'm behind because of being away for a while and i didn't want to read through all the other posts in last weeks blog and thought i'd mention it here so everybody knows

There is a new women's professional soccer league starting in the states next season

The WPS
http://www.womensprosoccer.com/

Basketball
YES! so glad that Becky and Russia got a bronze and that becky came away from this with a medal

congrats to the US, kinda wish Austrailia won but they didn't desrve to win after their performance

Handball
barely got to see any of it on tv but what i saw i LOVED we need this sport over here!!!

Canadian Channels
WOOT! CANADA. yeah a lot of americans have said they really like watching the canadian coverage cause it's covers more than just the canadian. i was away in portland than headed back up through washington and was so pleasantly surprise to find CBC on your stations down there!

I stand firm on my coments about Anne Donovan. I don't have problems with the inclusion of any player in particular, my problem's always been the exclusion of Becky Hammon. I've never doubted that we'd win the gold, but that doesn't detract from the principle of the thing: one of the best American players wasn't on the US team for some BS, political reason. The fact that no one has to answer for that decision now is disappointing.

After watching the effusive coverage of Lisa Leslie and Candace Parker today, I don't know why we're even bothering with actually playing the rest of the WNBA season...let's just go ahead and give the Sparks the championship. Good Lord.

I'm glad the US team won the gold in women's soccer, but my heart really does break for the Brazilians and for Marta in particular. She's one of the best ever to play the game and yet falls just short of the affirmation she needs, in the form of a World Cup title or gold medal. I hope that she'll consider pulling a Beckham and join the WPS in the States.

Likewise, I truly felt bad for the US softball team for their silver finish. Much respect, though, to the Japanese pitcher, Yukiko Ueno, who was INCREDIBLE. How her arm didn't fall completely off after throwing all those pitches is a mystery to me. Hopefully, the US loss will show that parity in softball is coming and we'll see the sport's return in 2016.

Well, time to rest up before the men's basketball finals...

-----

"The spirit of liberty is the spirit which is not too sure that it is right..." - Judge Learned Hand, The Spirit of Liberty

I was sooo hoping the Opals would win, it would have been great for them (& Australia) but from what I saw they were just having a bad game...sooo may missed shots! I think the only two who got a good amount for the team was Jackson and Snell...they played really well against China and they just couldn't repeat that...though getting Silver is still really great and I'm proud of them

Congrats to the US team though, they played a good game!

Just a side note: Congratulations to Matthew Mitcham for getting Gold in the Diving!

  

~Elvis Presley~

Great vlog Michelle & Becca!!!  I've been watching the Olympics not stopped too, and I absolutely loved the montage NBC had at the end of the night's coverage earlier this week regarding how people are sleep deprived because of staying up too late watching the olympics!  I won't even get a break after the olympics are over because I'm a tennis junkie and the US Open starts on Monday (Yea!).  I already wrote out my notes regarding the draws.  You should think about devoting a small segment in your next couple of vlogs to the US Open.  Oh, and count me in as a new handball fan.  I'm currently watching the gold metal final online. 

question your taste in women's basketball teams, some faith has now been restored hearing that you guys hate the Yankees.

All hope is not lost afterall.

So happy you caught the France-Russia game:) Amazing thriller of a game, and the French goalie is just wonderful to watch, most animated goal keeper in handball!

Hope you got to see the superexiting semi-final between south-korea and Norway, and also the final between Norway and Russia!

Hey girls, great vlog again! 

As somebody has already mentioned there is usually uploads of the matches that Ikast plays (Gro and Katja's club - nice improvement of the pronunciation btw ;-)) and they are usually done by me (when they get aired on Danish tv). So I would suggest you just watch the Gro Hammerseng forum OR simply PM me and I can let you know when I've uploaded a new match, no problem! Just excited to see more people enjoying the world's greatest sport! So not to worry you won't be handball deprived for the next four years - the Scandinavians will watch out for you poor Americans :-)

And of course a new happy Gro photo of her showing off her very deserved gold medal. Enjoy your Sunday everybody!

I have been reading the Gro/Katja thread here, and really, I was looking forward to see at least ONE freaking game of handball..and I didn't get to see any...not even men's handball...nada!  And then I read oh Norway women are going for the gold..and I was like Yes at least this may be the one I could see cos it is for the gold anyway...and guess what!? *sighs*..  Well.. Congrats Gro and Katja :-)

The Pan American Games were held here in the island in 2003, so we had to play all sports as a host country...including handball.. But I couldn't see any of the matches cos I was working at the equestrian venue 24/7. bleh.

I really hope that this time there would be some dvds about the Olympics Games in Beijing, and post some of the matches, trials, etc.

Great vlog Michy, Becca :-)

Have to disagree about those 2 guys really. For me personally Usain Bolt was THE defining athlete of these Olympics (yes Phelp's golds are incredibly impressive but for me track & field accomplishments outweigh swimming ones simply cos the swimmers can enter tons & tons of different events & so have the chance of winning 8 golds or whatever, but yeah still v impressive). Bolt was an absolute breath of fresh air for me, he's going to bring so many more people back into running & track & field when it's reputation had been tarnished throughout recent years with doping scandals etc. I think he's just an absolute superstar & exactly what that sport needs right now (& I'm literally hoping for all I can that he's clean...I will be SO disappointed if it turns out he cheated somehow). On the 100m thing, I absolutely loved it! He knew he'd won before he even started, everyone else knew he'd won before they started, it was mindblowing how good he was, I've never seen anyone race a race like that (especially on the biggest stage in the world) & I loved all 9.whatever seconds it took. Loved it & love him, he made me actually plan to set aside time to see all his races whether they were heats, semi-finals, finals, relays, anything he was doing, I was watching. Star of Beijing for me.

And on Roger Federer for me he is my favourite athlete from any sport in any era. I could watch him play tennis all day, everyday...amazing! I was glad he actually got doubles gold at least cos I so wanted him to get singles gold, hopefully this can get his year back on track & he can go win the US Open in the next 2 weeks.

Anyhoo great vlog anyway!

PS: oh and just to add to the teams/athletes we disagree over...I'm a Lakers fan ;)

I had heard of Team Handball, and had vaguely heard of Gro Hammerseg (I learned of Gro from afterellen.com about a year ago) but never saw this sport played until the 2008 Olympics. NBC didn't show it on TV, except for a snippet or two but luckily most of the women's games were posted on the web in their entirety. The question I kept asking myself as an American, why the HELL isn’t this game played in the US?? I would have played Team Handball over softball, soccer, and basketball if I knew it existed. Team Handball game is super exciting, fast, aggressive, and very high scoring. Team Handball is combination of soccer/basketball/dodgeball/and the WWF. I especially ADORED TEAM HANDBALL because of its physicality and rough housing. I've never seen a woman pick up another woman and throw her to the hard court floor until Team Handball. I was also ENTHRALLED by super gorgeous and sexy Gro Hammerseng (a lesbian pinup if there ever was one) and Norway's Women Team Handball Team!!! I LOVE THIS GAME!!! I LOVE GRO TOO! I hope this Olympics stirs more interest in Team Handball in North America.