Iceland takes the silver

**Courtesy of the September edition of Dateline Iceland

Iceland claimed its second-ever silver medal, losing to France in men’s handball in the final event of the 2008 Beijing Olympics. According to Iceland Olympic Men’s handball athlete Ingimundur Ingimundarson, "Vikings are crazy. We're crazy. We believe so much in ourselves. I think that's the secret."

Back in Iceland, streets were deserted as people watched the match in their homes or in pubs and clubs. Companies allowed employees time off, while at least two cinemas screened the match for free. Players said that during the team’s semifinal appearance the country’s stock market stopped business as traders abandoned their computers to tune in.

Aside from the 1956 silver in the triple jump, Iceland has won two other bronzes, the last in 2000, and no golds. Despite the name, our country of just 300,000 people has never excelled at winter games, either. Go figure. Perhaps we’re always too busy taking in the sights.

How awesome is it that a whole country could get so excited about a couple of their guys playing handball in the Olympics. That swimming guy broke like crazy records and we got a little bit excited about it, but have you ever heard of companies letting their employees off to go support the team? Or, shutting down the stock market??

And according to Dan Steinberg of The Washington Post - It's like what Iceland handball captain Olafur Stefansson told me when I asked whether people in his country actually believe in magic elves. ‘It's not so much a matter of believing in the regular sense of the word, it's more of enjoying the possibility of it actually existing,’ he said. ‘And it doesn't matter whether somebody judges you or not for having that possibility in your mind. Because it's a funny possibility, and it enlightens your life and makes it more colorful.’

They delight in the possibility of magical elves!

Maybe this all seems so dreamy and foreign to me because I grew up in LA, but I'm all about being there for your peeps, and I love the sense of community, confidence and pride Iceland seems to have.

Soon enough, you all will be as obsessed with Iceland as I am.