Where – this question should be allowed – do all the outstanding Icelandic handball players come from? Given the only 300,000 inhabitants, it’s hardly comprehensible that the handball federation can form a team which belongs to the top of the world. Players such as Olafur Stefansson, Gudjon Valur Sigurdsson or Robert Gunnarsson have long gained worldwide fame. The explanation for this phenomenon will be only found in Iceland itself. Those who travel through the country by car will find at least one sports hall in the few small towns they are visiting, even in the smallest villages. Handball is a national sport in Iceland. “Whenever the team plays, TV viewing figures amount to more than 80 per cent”, Gudmundur Gudmundsson says.

The fact that the Icelanders fanatically share the excitement with the team is largely due to the coach. The two biggest successes the team could celebrate occurred during his term of office. At the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, the Icelandic team won the silver medal and only had to admit defeat to the superior French team in the final. Two years later they took bronze at the European Championship in Austria. No need to say that the coach as well as his players have been regarded as heroes in their home country since the Olympics, which was the biggest achievement in the history of Icelandic sport. After all, the silver medal gained in Beijing was only the fourth Olympic medal of the country in total.

Between these two successes, however, Icelandic handball also hit rock bottom, as the Nordics – almost all of them play abroad – missed the qualification for the 2009 WCh in Croatia. Nevertheless no one should underestimate Iceland due to this failure. “Of course we’ve set goals for ourselves we as a team would like to achieve during this WCh. I said that we want to compete for the medals. And the team shares this goal”, Gudmundsson states.

The fact that they qualified for the Main Round having achieved the best possible result (five victories in five matches) underlines their ambitions. However it was only the first step. The second step is supposed to happen in the Main Round in Jönköping: Iceland want to reach the semi-final. They stick to their goal even though they suffered an unexpected defeat (24:27) against a strong German team at the beginning of the Main Round. “That day mainly our offensive play didn’t work out well. But as I know that we can do better, I remain optimistic that we’ll succeed”, the coach explains.

In order to achieve their goal, they have to eliminate two big favourites. The next teams the confident coach and his players have to compete with are Spain (Monday, 16:00) and France (Tuesday, 20:15). Gudmundsson will then have to rely on the strengths of his team. Team cohesion will probably be the key to success. The Icelandic team does certainly not have the best individual players, but they definitely have a great team spirit. “We’re all a bit crazy, and always willing to give our all to achieve something.”