Lewis HowesYour Personal 24/7 Greatness Coach

How I Played With Team USA

8 Jun 2025 · 1 min

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In this personal narrative, Lewis Howes recounts how he first saw team handball on television while living on his sister's couch, sparking an unexpected fascination with a sport he later learned could be an Olympic event. Within nine months he earned enough money to move to New York City, where he trained for another nine months and received an invitation to join the USA national handball team. Over eight years he competed with the team, but the United States has not qualified for the Olympic handball tournament since 1996, only appearing when a host nation receives an automatic berth. With Los Angeles slated to host the 2028 Olympics, the USA will again have an automatic spot, prompting Howes—now twenty years after his first exposure—to intensify his rehabilitation, weight loss, and training regimen in an effort to compete at a high level once more. He expresses a deep personal drive to take the next step, despite the challenges, underscoring his commitment to the sport and the upcoming Olympic opportunity.

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I'm living on my sister's couch and I see this sport called team handball at 3am on the TV. And I go, what is this sport? I've never seen in my life? I'm meant to play this sport in the Olympics. Nine months after that, I make enough money to get off my sister's couch to get to New York City. I go there and I train for nine months and I get the email that I've been selected with the USA national team. I played for eight years with the USA team, but we weren't good enough to qualify to the Olympics. USA has not played in the Olympics since 1996 for handball. But the reason we played then is because every host country gets an automatic qualifier. And I thought it was going to be done. But now the USA got the bid for the host country, la 2028. So it'll be 20 years since I saw the sport for the first time on my sister's couch. So for the last eight months, I've been rehabbing, I've been training, I've been losing weight, I've been doing everything just to get myself to go and see if I can play competitively at that level. Like, I don't know, maybe it's crazy, but I can't live with myself without at least taking it the next step.