Handball (also known as team handball, Olympic handball or European handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) pass and bounce a ball to throw it into the goal of the opposing team. The team with the most goals after two periods of 30 minutes wins (times and periods vary based on level of play).

The team handball game of today was formed by the end of the 19th century in northern Europe, primarily Denmark, Germany, Norway and Sweden. Holger Nielsen, a Danish gym teacher, drew up the rules for modern handball (håndbold) in 1898. Men's field handball was played at the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin at the request of Adolf Hitler. The sport was removed from the 1940 Olympic Summer Games. However, during the next several decades, the game of handball flourished and evolved as an indoor sport in the Scandinavian countries. The sport re-emerged onto the world stage as team handball for the 1972 Summer Olympics in Munich. Women's team handball was added at the 1976 Summer Olympics. Due to its popularity in the region, the Eastern European countries that refined the event became the dominant force in the sport when it was reintroduced.

Modern handball is usually played indoors, but outdoors variants exist in the form of field handball (which was more common in the past) and beach handball. American handball is a completely different sport.

Handball is played on a court 40 meters long by 20 meters wide (40 m x 20 m), with a goal in the center of each end. The goals are surrounded by a near-semicircular area, called the zone or the crease, defined by a line six meters from the goal. A dashed near-semicircular line nine meters from the goal marks the free-throw line. (more)