Handball

Handball is a contact sport played seven-a-side on a 40-by-20-metre court: players advance by dribbling or taking a maximum of three steps, often finishing with a jump shot within the six-metre area, and scoring into a three-metre-wide goal. Two thirty-minute halves, high-scoring matches — often with over thirty goals per team — and aggressive defences make the game very physical. It originated in the early 20th century in Germany, Denmark and Scandinavia as an outdoor sport played with eleven players, and in this form it featured at the 1936 Berlin Olympics; the seven-a-side indoor version, now the only official one, was included in the Olympic programme at Munich 1972, and the women’s tournament at Montreal 1976. The modern game is extremely fast-paced: immediate counter-attacks following a turnover, frequent substitutions, and the goalkeeper is often replaced by a field player to gain a numerical advantage in attack. The passive play rule obliges teams to conclude their attacks quickly. At the 20th Mediterranean Games in Taranto in 2026, handball will be played from 22 August to 1 September at the Palazzetto dello Sport in Fasano and the Pala San Giacomo in Conversano, with two titles up for grabs: the men’s tournament and the women’s tournament.

• 1Seven players per team on the pitch, two halves of thirty minutes each
• 2A maximum of three steps with the ball in hand and a three-second holding limit
• 3The goal area (six metres) is reserved for the goalkeeper: a shot may only be taken by jumping over it
• 4Progressive penalties: a booking, a two-minute suspension, a ban
• 5Two titles in Taranto, with matches in Fasano and Conversano