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Nikola Karabatic the world’s greatest handballer.

Nikola Karabatic the world’s greatest handballer.

Since I’ve recently been taking childish enjoyment out of featuring athletes whose names bring on the snickers, like Liam Tancock and Phuoc Hung, you’d think I’d straighten up and move on to just paying attention to a few hot bodies. Or so you’d think if you did not know me well. Instead I’m covering an equally snicker inducing sport: handball. That the guy considered to be the world’s best handballer is a total hunk just makes the topic that much more appealing. That he has appeared nude in two Dieux du Stade calenders and accidently exposed his best buddy in the accompanying ‘making of video’ makes it even sweeter. Lastly, I couldn’t resist the chance to post pix of Nikola Karabatic in his birthday suit because today is the Serbian hunk’s birthday. He turns 28. He’s still single. He does not have a girlfriend. And you can catch him dancing shirtless with a bunch of other half naked hunks on YouTube.

But before we get to the hot Serbian hunk who plays for Team France – and maybe for our team too – let’s snicker a moment longer about handball, a sport many of you may not be familiar with. Having never seen the event televised during past Olympic coverages, I mistakenly thought it was the same handball I enjoyed playing into my late thirties. It’s not. The sport I was thinking of uses a smaller ball, one that fits nicely in your hand. As all good balls do. The version played in the Olympics however, uses a much larger ball. Obviously, the Olympics firmly believe that bigger is always better. And I can’t disagree.

Handballing in action . . .

In the Olympics, handball is a team sport, played indoors, that is kind of a combination of basketball and soccer (which some of you may mistakenly refer to as football). Each team fields seven players (six outfield players and a goalkeeper) who pass a ball – that is about half the size of a regulation basketball – to throw it into the goal of the other team. It is a quick, fast-paced game that includes a lot of body contact and fouls, called faults in team handball, are frequent and considered a good defensive play. Goals too are scored frequently with most matches ending with both teams hitting 30 points or more, so it is not as boring as some of the other field type ball games popular outside of the U.S.

Players are allowed to touch the ball with any part of their bodies above and including the knee. The rather intricate rules seems to use a time period of three seconds to base when and how a player must move the ball, and while throwing it is popular as it moves the ball down court quickly, dribbling is a major part of the game. So it’s kinda like what would happen if you threw the Lakers onto a soccer field and gave them a water polo ball to play with.

. . . and hotness in repose.

While there are also variations to the game played outdoors such as field handball, Czech handball, and beach handball, the indoor sport is generally considered an Eastern European game and teams from those countries have dominated the Olympics since it became a part of the Games in the 1972 Berlin Olympics. Russia has won the most gold medals in the sport; France took the gold in 2008 at the Beijing Games by besting Iceland in the finals and with Nikola Karabatic playing for the team has been the world champions since then.

At the London Games twelve nations will compete in the event which is scheduled to be held from July 28th to August 12th. Preliminary rounds and quarter-finals will take place in the Copper Box while the semi-finals and final will be in the larger Basketball Arena.

Nikola models his own line of mens underwear. And like any straight man would, chooses a pink bunny to do so with.

Nikola and his team mates qualified for an Olympic berth at the 2011 World Championships held in January in Sweden with a 37-35 victory over Denmark, making France the first nation in 37 years to retain the men’s world handball title. The game was won with Karabatic – who was voted MVP – scoring ten points during overtime play; with that win France became the second nation, behind hosts Great Britain, to qualify for the men’s Olympic handball event at the London Games.

Nikola is considered the world’s best handballer and has consistently won best player and MVP accolades over the last eight years of his professional career playing for a team in Germany and then the Montpellier Handball Club in France as well as on the French National Team. Charismatic both on and off the field, Nikola’s drive to win is what, he feels, sets him apart from other handballers. “There’s a difference between a good sportsman and the best sportsman. The good ones are satisfied at a certain moment, the best ones are always hungry for every title, to win every match, to hold every trophy in hands,” he said during an interview last year. “This is my motivation. This is my fuel. I always want to win!”

Smooth chest and a heavy beard on baby-soft skin: nice.

And a winner he is. The handsome 28-year-old’s medal count in international competition includes five gold medals and three bronze including the Olympic Gold Medal his team won at the Beijing Games. Since 2002 he has been a European Handball Champion and was named the IHF World Player of the Year in 2007. A national icon in France, Nikola is considered to be responsible for making handball that country’s third favorite team sport behind soccer and rugby. He readily admits however, that his chosen sport is so often compared unfavorably to football in France makes him angry. “This is a constant, regardless of the outcome,” he says bemoaning the rivalry that places football ahead even as his team scores championship after championship. “Even today when we are on the front of the stage and that footballers have had such bad performance.”

But handball is gaining in popularity right along side Nikola’s fame. He has landed lucrative endorsement deals with both national and international companies, appeared in commercials for VISA, and was recently named as one of seven athletes to be on the French Team BMW Performance, part of the German car manufacture’s sponsoring partnership with the France Olympic team. Nikola also is a Goodwill Ambassador for the NGO Aequalia whose goal is to broaden access to clean drinking water in third-world countries. And then, of course, there are his two appearances – in 2009 and 2011 – of the Dieux du Stade calender which features France’s top ball players showing off their balls for a good cause.

And pretty on pink, too.

In his off year from his duties of stripping down as a god of the month Nikola followed up on one of his non-sports related passions: fashion. (Uh, oh!) In 2010 he started his own line of underwear for men, Superstone, for which he acted as both designer and model. Distributed in small, quality stores in France, the brand gained instant recognition when Nikola debuted his line in a juicy pictorial that appeared in France’s leading gay magazine, Tetu. But then Nikola has never been hands off when it comes to the pink world. Back when he played for Kiel in Germany he was video taped dancing shirtless with a bunch of other hot partially naked studs to the Village People’s YMCA, an appearance that is a perennial favorite on YouTube. And which helped spark the rumors that Nikola may be gay.

Not that a hot, handsome, famous hunk who has no girlfriend and who has only been rumored to possibly be dating one woman for a very brief period of time during his entire career should make anyone’s gaydar start pinging. Ditto for his passion for fashion, or that the photos he posts on the internet are always of him and male friends; take no notice of how nicely his apartment is accessorized in those photos either. And there are probably hundreds of straight guys who are humongous fans of gay global DJ and producer David Guetta. Nor should anyone make much of his tongue-in-cheek comment on his tech-blog that readers might notice that his Christmas wish list “has a fairly big fruit theme LOL.”

LOL, indeed.

Nikola seems to have an affinity for posting pictures of himself with hunky guys. With women, not so much.

A vacation in Croatia two years ago, once again with a handful of male friends in attendance and no women on the horizon, was cause for more rumors among the press. Which caused Nikola to address the subject again and again. And again. When asked by one journalist at the beginning of his trip about the rumor he played for the pink team, Nikola’s laughed and responded he was not gay, he just didn’t have a girlfriend. The next time he was asked, he said he was enjoying cruising the Adriatic with his buddies. “I’m here with friends,” he said when interviewed in Dubrovnik. “Does that immediately mean that I’m gay?”

When asked in yet another interview about his status as a sex symbol and his possible status as a gay man, Nikola noted the press in Croatia was too interested in his private life, whereas in France they only concentrated on his handball skills. “My friend made fun of the girls waiting in line wherever it appears in the media stories appear that I am gay,” he said not seeming to realize that pulling just one of those women out of line might help quash the rumors. “And what I’m supposed to do?” he asked. To which the interviewer, replied, “Marry, I suppose?”

Nikola’s YMCA humpathon.

Or he could take a cue from fellow French handballer Alexandra Lacrabère who came out to little fanfare in the French magazine Hand Action last November, showing which athlete playing for France has the biggest balls. Even if she is fish. She too will be competing at the London Games and it’d be nice if Nikola represented the men as well.

As for his comment to the Serbian newspaper Alo! prior to his trip to the area, “I‘m planning on going back to Serbia soon and touring Belgrade clubs and cafes, so who knows. Maybe, I‘ll find a girlfriend there,” he didn’t. But then the trip was more about connecting with the country of his birth than it was about finding female companionship.

Nikola at his birthday bash last year. And again, shirtless guys: 1, women: 0

Nikola at his birthday bash last year. And again, shirtless guys: 1, women: 0

Nikola moved to France in 1988 at the age of four with his parents and his younger brother, 22-year-old Luka, who also plays for the Montpellier team and is a hottie in his own right. His father, Branko, was a goalkeeper for the Yugoslavian team and was instrumental in both of his sons taking up handball for a career. In their earlier years, he acted as their coach; the relationship between father and sons was a close one. In fact, Nikola attributes his decision to return to France and play for the Montpellier club to his desire to be closer to his family.

The Blue’s, as the Montpellier Handball Club is affectionately known, recent poor performance at the European Championships may well have been due to their star player’s loss of his father last May. Nikola said of his team’s early defeat by the Hungarian team, “This is the worst game of my international career.”

Nice, um, tat.

Hard on himself for his unheard of 13 to 5 shooting record in the game, a team mate was more forgiving. “I think in recent months Nikola lived through something very difficult And sometimes, the head takes over the rest, “ he said. “All I want him to know is that my heart is with him, that of course he want it, because through him and with others, we won a lot , and he remains one of our star players and we count on him for the future. ”We’ll leave him alone and give him time to rebuild,” said coach Claude Onesta after the final Championship match of the Blues against Iceland. “ If there will be a revenge in the future, it will be up to him. He will be an important part of our comeback at the Games.”

“The Euro has not been a nightmare,” said Nikola back home in France. “Losing is part of the game, we must also accept it even if it was not our ambition. But pity is has never been part of Nikola’s game, he acknowledges that he and his team need to regroup and train harder for the upcoming contest. “There are many projects to be undertaken for the Games,” he said. “But I remain confident.”

. . . and the shot that wasn’t suppose to air. Looks to qualify for a gold medal to me.

And though the year did not start out well for Nikola, France is expected to be a major contender for the gold in London. Both France and his home country will be rooting for the young Serb, as should gay men all over the world. If for no better reason, capturing the gold should guarantee Nikola a spot in next year’s Dieux du Stade calendar once again.

[‘The XXX Games’ are a series of posts about hot Olympians, gay competitors – both present and past – and general articles about the 2012 London Olympics of interest to gay men. So, yeah, lots of hot male eye candy. Click the XXX Games graphic below for additional news, stories, and pictures.]

The XXX Games of the Olympiad