PARIS — The sport of beach handball is fast, athletic and high scoring.
Portland, Oregon native Ebiye Udo-Udoma said he discovered handball while watching indoor handball during the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, China. He said it's the perfect sport.
"What drew me to handball is knowing that it's one of the lesser-known sports in the U.S., and I would be a pioneer within a sport for my country," Udo-Udoma said.
For those who don't know the sport, matches are played as two 10-minute sets, with a five-minute halftime. If teams are tied at the end of regular play, they play for a golden goal. If the teams are tied at the end of two sets, they play for a tiebreaker.
Even though it's not yet an Olympic sport, it was part of the "IHF Beach Handball Showcase" July 27-29 just outside of Paris in Créteil, France.
Handball is described as soccer with your hands with a bit of lacrosse and rough basketball thrown in.
"It's a culmination of all the sports I played growing up like basketball, baseball, football," Udo-Udoma said. "All of that combined into one is handball, and it's the most spectacular sport in the world."
But he isn't the only American playing the sport. Drew Donlin is from Minnesota.
"If someone would've asked me even a couple years ago if this would happen, I probably wouldn't have believed them especially then years ago when I was in college," Donlin said. "It's a dream come true to be here even though we're not in the full Olympics. It's still an honor to be here.
Donlin's support system consists of his mom, dad, and sister, who are all here in France.
"He was a mainstream average football, basketball [player]," Donlin's father, Drew, said. "He didn't grow much until he got out of high school. He was 6-foot-1 when he got out of high school. Now he's 6-foot-8, 240 pounds."
Both Udo-Udoma and Donlin said the experience of being in Paris is a chance to elevate beach handball.
Every player I spoke with said they believe beach handball will be in the 2028 Olympics. They all said it only makes sense since the games are in California.