AGE: 31 COUNTRY: Germany EVENT: Men's team handball THE DRAMA: Germany won the European title without an injured Kretzschmar; a gold would mark a successful comeback THE COMPETITION: France, Slovenia, Spain and world champion Croatia are all contenders
Posted Sunday, August 8, 2004; 11.13BST
He stands 1.90 m tall and weighs 95 kg; he has seven piercings and more than a dozen tattoos most notably the skull of a bull surrounding his navel. Could Stefan Kretzschmar look any scarier? "I've had a decade to get used to this wild-guy image," says the surprisingly laid-back star of Germany's national men's handball team. "If I have a beer too many," he muses, "they'll just say,'Well, Kretzsche would behave that way, what with the way he looks.'"
Kretzschmar, 31, is definitely intimidating on a handball court: fast, aggressive and blessed with an almost eerie ability to anticipate the flight of the ball. Injury kept him out of the 2004 European Championship at the start of this year, in which Germany defeated Slovenia for the title. But he's determined to be fit for Athens, which could be his last chance to fulfill a childhood dream. "When you start throwing balls at the goal in your back garden, you imagine you're in the Olympic final," he says.
Germany is the favorite to win the men's handball, but the team will face stiff competition from the likes of Croatia, which unexpectedly beat Germany last year to take the world title. Kretzschmar already has a string of championship trophies, but there's still one thing missing: a gold medal to go with all those tattoos.
Double Dutch in the Olympic Pool [Jul. 26, 2004]
Twin sisters Sonja and Bianca van der Velden are in this together — and they have plenty to smile about
Straight To Video [Jul. 26, 2004]
Sure, the Games are always TV-friendly. But the Athens Olympics are designed for cameras, not fans. No sweat: ticket sales are slow anyway
Leaving the Past Behind [Jul. 12, 2004]
Victory for Taiwan's baseball team may restore some luster to the island's scandal-tainted diamonds
Is She the Next Nadia? [Jul. 05, 2004]
Catalina Ponor, cultivated in the hothouse of Romanian gymnastics, wants to be nothing less
To The Hammer Born [Jun. 21, 2004]
In Koji Murofushi's family, becoming a world-class athlete is just the standard career path
Athens Clears A Hurdle [May. 24, 2004]
The Olympic Stadium is topped off and gets a big thumbs-up for its prep work
The King of Racewalking [May. 31, 2004]
Poland's Robert Korzeniowski is the greatest of all time — and he's going for one last gold in Athens
Going to the Temple of Love [May. 24, 2004]
A sailor's tribute to Aphrodite is uncovered by Olympic constructors
How Safe Is Athens? [May. 17, 2004]
Bombs go off 100 days before the Olympics begin. A look at who may have planted them, and how officials plan to secure the Games
Mogadishu at 60 Miles an Hour Arms merchants are once again doing brisk business after a rapid change of power in this tough town, but so far the peace has held
The Year of The Nuke A rundown of the world's nuclear powerhouses, and what to expect in the coming months
