Parkour by Geysir
There is a small group of parkour enthusiasts in Iceland, including Tommi, pictured here jumping in front of Strokkur. Strokkur is a geyser in the Geysir area. It erupts every 5-10 minutes.
Photo by Sigurður Svansson
Our tiny Iceland has one of the greatest handball teams in the World. Read the full story here and then read more about Ólafur.
Iceland from above - Skydiving into the Reykjavík Airport
A few Icelandic skydivers jumped from a helicopter above Reykjavík during the Reykjavik Air Show last week. Skydiving in Iceland is on quite an upswing right now. The local skydiving club’s airplane was damaged beyond repair in a storm several years ago, leaving the club penniless and planeless. Since then, there have been almost no jumps in the country, until recently. In the past couple of years a new skydiving company has been relaunching the sport. This opens the chance for you to experience Iceland in free fall. If you are a certified jumper, you can rent a rig and jump. If you are new to the sport, you can do a simple tandem jump.
Remember Iceland in the Mighty Ducks?
In this 1992 movie, the opponent team, the evil guys were from Iceland. Well now Iceland is back to reclaim their pride.
Iceland won Spain 2-0
As the host said in 1991, “Iceland humiliated one of Europe’s proudest soccer nations.” Iceland was at the bottom of the league competing in the European Cup when they met Spain. The coach, my friend’s late father Ásgeir Elíasson, made some drastic changes in the team just before the game, resulting in a surprise victory.
Up until today, Iceland has played a total of 9 games against Spain, but this is our only victory.
First Icelander to win an international fitness competition
This dehydrated, supertanned, bikini clad woman is Kristín Kristjánsdóttir, the first Icelander to win an international fitness competition. She won the IFBB International Cup in Austria yesterday.
12 year old Icelandic basketball player scores the final basket from the opposite side of the court. Just after Keflavík had scored what everybody thought was the last point of the game, Þórir G. Þorbjarnarson shot across the court.
Perhaps this will be Iceland’s second most popular sports clip after the famous fishing scene by the Stjarnan soccer team.
The Icelandic media may be busy complaining that the Icelandic handball team “only” made it to 6th place in the Handball World Cup (pretty good for a tiny country), but meanwhile other victories get less attention. Snowboarding Magazine’s 2010 Rookie of the Year, X Games Big Air Gold Medalist, Halldór Helgason just beat Shaun White (yeah you know the one featured on 60 Minutes and every major snowboarding publicity stunt) in the X Games Slopestyle finals.
Check out his and his snowboarding brother’s website www.helgasons.com.
Iceland wins Hungary 32:26 in the Handball World Cup
For a country of only 318.236 souls it is hard to excel at team sports, but handball is our cup of tea. Iceland’s first game of the 2011 World Cup in Sweden today was a secure win 32:26.
It caused quite some emotions in Iceland when Iceland won silver at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing.
