"This is the greatest moment of my life."

This sentence was said to me countless times during my time working as a flash quote reporter for Olympic handball. That's a pretty loaded statement and no matter how many times I heard it, it never got old. The first time an athlete said that to me was when Jung Suyoung of team Korea scored a tying goal with seconds ticking off the clock to end the game. When I spoke to him after the game, albeit through a translator, he could not stop smiling and the joy on his face was enough to make me smile as well.

For an athlete like Jung to prepare his whole life for a shot at Olympic glory, scoring such an important goal for his team was the greatest feeling he could have achieved, and for me, being able to talk to him during that moment was an honor. Korea did not end up winning a medal in Beijing, but Jung Suyoung will never forget the goal he scored - the greatest moment of his life and I will never forget talking to him afterwards.

Another time I heard similar words, were from Iker Romero of the Spanish team. In the semifinals Spain lost to Iceland and Romero could not have been more devastated. Spain came to Beijing in search of gold or silver and now the best they could do was bronze. However, the relief that Romero felt when Spain upset Croatia, the defending Olympic gold medallists, was indescribable. Though winning the bronze was not necessarily the happiest moment of Romero's life the sense of accomplishment he described to me while I spoke to him after the match was incredible. Spain earned medals in previous world championships and European Championships and as Romero described to me, "I will take the three medals I have won in the past four years, put them in my room, and when I look at them I will think to myself, 'This wasn't so bad.'" I really thought that was a great way to put things in perspective.

However, the greatest moment had to have been from speaking with Iceland's Sigfus Sigurdsson after Iceland won the silver medal. Iceland was not expected to win a medal in this tournament, especially considering the last medal the tiny nation of 300,000 people won at a Summer games was in 1956. Sigurdsson is one of Iceland's emotional leader, standing at 6'6" and weighing in at 251 pounds. He wears his emotions on his sleeve and cried countless tears of joy as he was presented with his silver medal. Before Sigurdsson came through the mixed zone, the president of Iceland was speaking with some media and told us that this was the greatest sporting achievement in Iceland's history. When I told that Sigurdsson, his face lit up. He said he couldn't wait to get home because he thought the entire population of Iceland would be waiting for him at the airport. We were also able to share a laugh when he exclaimed, "Today I am the happiest man in Asia!"

As a journalist, capturing the emotion of a moment is one of the most important things. Being able to share the greatest moment of someone's life with someone is an amazing feeling. After seeing the joy on these athletes' faces as they achieved their own form of glory has proved to me that the Olympic dream is still alive. These athletes will undoubtedly never forget these moments for their entire lives and having the honor of sharing it with them is a memory that will stay with me forever.

The Men's Handball Gold medal matchup between France and Iceland was a crushing of sorts, but there was a hidden meaning behind the game. No one really expected Iceland to come out with Olympic Gold, yet no one really expected them to be playing for the chance to medal either. In order to get there, France beat Croatia and Iceland beat Spain in the semifinals.

Team Iceland was definitely the biggest shocker of the tournament. The country of Iceland had previously won three other medals since their inception to the summer Olympics. A Silver medal in Athletics, and a Bronze medal in Judo and Athletics. But get this, the Silver medal was won back in 1956. This story was unbelievable. In recent competitions, the Iceland men's team came in 9th at the Olympics in Athens, 8th at the 2007 World Handball Championships, and 11th at the 2008 European Championships. 

After their loss to France, their heads were held low and their coach were disappointed in their performance. But soon after the medal ceremony, when all of team Iceland was standing at the podium, tears of absolute joy ran from their faces. These medals mean so much to not only the players themselves, but for the country. It really is symbolic. 

I am so glad that I could experience this interaction first hand. Athletes train for the Olympics for four years so they can put on their best performance possible. This Olympics was no different. We saw triumph and we saw defeat. I can only look forward for the next coming Olympics and see how teams jumble around and who emerges top of the Handball world.

The culminations of four years of preparations and training bring out a wide range of emotions. At handball we are now a game away from awarding the gold medal.  Norway and Russia will be vying for the prize.  Behind them the two teams have left ten others who have walked of the court defeated, but not without controversy.

Waiting in the mixed zone to do an interview, I expect one team in tears and the other in absolute joy. It is very cool to witness the opposite reactions simultaneously.  It has become common place and I have learned to deal with both the winners and the losers. I greet the winners with a wide smile and a loud “congratulations,” the losers receive my straight face and a somber toned, “how disappointed are you right now” (like I really have to ask when the person I’m interviewing is balling her eyes out).

Then yesterday controversy struck and I got different kind of reaction from team Korea.  I had left the press tribune with two minutes left and Korea losing to Norway by three goals in the semifinal match.  I got to the mixed zone just in time to see the score change on the TV to from “27-28” to“28-28,” I didn’t even see the goal being scored.  I did see, seconds later, Norway score the game winning goal with no time left.  After the entire team finished dancing in a circle together Norway’s players ran of the court.  Korea went nowhere.  The head coach was talking with referees and officials, the players all sat together on the sideline.  The assistant coaches were all on their cell phones.  I stood in the mixed zone, waiting and waiting and waiting.  Eventually, the head coach left the court with some Olympic officials.  After coming back minutes later he spoke to his team, and then headed towards me with a grey haired Korean man in front of him.  The players came first and didn’t stop in the mixed zone.  They were upset but not defeated, just confused.  They ignored me and the rest reporters packing into the mixed zone trying to figure out what was going.  Next the grey haired man walked into the zone and spoke in Korean.  I dispatched the Korean translator I was working with.  “Forget about any of my questions,” I said, “write down everything he says in Chinese, we’ll translate it later.” Shortly after the grey haired left the head coach came in.  “Same thing,” I said to the translator.  As we left he mixed zone all the Norwegian reporters were hounding us.  “What did he say? Can anyone translate what the coach said!?”  I grabbed my translator and told him to follow me to the ONS office, “We have to impute it,” I explained, “they can all read what the coach said on INFO when were done.”

Turns out the Korea was protesting the last goal by Norway.  To paraphrase what the coach and the grey haired man (who was the vice president of Korean Handball) said - the goal was scored two seconds after time was up.  The assistant coaches were on their cells with Korean TV stations who were replaying the goal.  The coach asked to see a replay but officials told him he was not allowed.  He could prepare a document and file an appeal within nine hours, which is what Korea did.  The coach claimed the referee even admitted he wasn’t sure if Norway scored in time because the crowd was so loud he couldn’t hear the buzzer. Making things more complicated Korea handball has a history of being treated unfairly and has actually had matches replayed before. 

Apparently the appeal will do no good in the Olympics though, because if it was ruled the game should go into overtime than the Norwegians will fill a counter appeal.  There is no way the whole thing could be put to rest before the gold medal match is played tomorrow.

It’s an interesting situation I found myself covering.  No offense the Koreans (they happened to be my favorite team, I picked them to win it all the first time I saw them play) but it was the most exciting day at handball yet.  When I left the stadium at 11pm the IOC was having a meeting to determine what to do.  I’ll find out what they decide when I go back in tomorrow.  With little hope, I’m crossing my figures for Korea.

Well, we have reached that time where we had to say our goodbyes to four unlucky teams that failed to qualify for the quarterfinals of the men's handball tournament. The teams that didn't qualify were China, Brazil, Germany, and Egypt. The biggest surprise was the failure of the German handball team. They had won the gold medal in the 2007 World Championships and were a big disappointment to handball fans across the globe. Not to mention, a key player, Pascal Hens went down with a knee injury early in the tournament. That definitely could have hindered Germany's procession as well.  As these teams lost, one could really see in the anguish and agony that these players were feeling.  Interviewing the athletes was very difficult because their Olympic dreams were crushed. They were at a loss for words and many were crying. Four years of training and preparation just ended much too quickly.  

The semifinals matches are as follows: Croatia v France and Iceland v Spain. The defending Gold medal champion from the Athens 2004 Olympic Games Croatia, beat Denmark on Wednesday.  Also, France beat Russia, Iceland beat Poland, and Spain beat Korea in the quarterfinals. The losing squads now must face each other to place for rankings five through eight. It will be very interesting how this "olympic puzzle will piece itself together", when all is said and done.

And with that, we are now moving from the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium, a stadium which holds approximately 4,400 people, to the National Indoor Stadium, which holds nearly 20,000 people. The National Indoor Stadium was where gymnastics was held and lies on the Olympic Green.  But don't worry, the Olympic Sports Center Gymnasium is not being shut down just yet.  It is now going to be the home of Wushu!

This blog is from Stephen Lauer, our University of Maryland student, affectionately known to all as "scuba steve."

After day three of handball group play, interviewing and writing flash quotes from the athletes is still as thrilling and stressful as the first day.  The great part about flash quotes is that, from the training sessions to the first couple games, we have developed relationships with the athletes.  The athletes talk about the incredible highs and devastating losses, it truly humanizes the athletes for people who have only ever been fans and seen them as pawns to be played or traded in order to win a championship.  That is incredible for me.  However, the downside to all of this that occasionally we cannot speak to the athletes.

Of all the teams that qualified for Olympic Women’s Handball, only Germany, Norway, Romania, and Sweden speak enough English to be interviewed without translation.  Rarely have I felt as ignorant as when we started and I realized that I could not speak directly to eight of the twelve teams; while a few players on each team would try to speak a few words of English, I didn’t even know where to start in Portuguese, Hungarian (yes, they have their own language), Russian, Korean, or Romanian (yes, them too).  Starting with France, I decided to make an effort, I said “bonjour” before the interview and “merci bo coup” afterwards, I got a smile and an appreciative nod from my interviewee Stephanie Cano.  From there I learned simple phrases in Korean (an-yo-han-sai-yo, hello), Hungarian (yo-napot, good afternoon), and Norwegian (bra kamp, good match).

However, my problem was not only could I not understand the athletes, but I couldn’t communicate with my translator.  Language Services provides ONS with many, very nice Chinese students who know the tongues of the competing countries; unfortunately, this means they speak Russian, Hungarian, or Korean, and Chinese, but only minimal English.  This means that, in order to interview the athletes, we need to go through a Chinese to English translator as well.  One can imagine that it is quite difficult to get the full quote when it goes through two translators, not to mention ask a quick follow up question.  In these first few days, we have identified which Language Services workers have strong English or can conduct interviews themselves (once given our questions), and found other multi-lingual staff throughout the building to help with our flash quotes.

All in all, this experience motivates me to learn another language after these Olympics.  With so many nations around the world struggling to learn English, I would like to return the favor by making an effort to learn their language.