Reykjavík Grapevine - 08.01.2016, Side 12

Athlete of the year:
Eygló Ósk
Gústafsdóttir
by Hrefna Björg Gylfadóttir
On the second to last day of 2015, twenty-
year-old swimmer Eygló Ósk Gústafs-
dóttir was crowned Iceland’s Athlete
of the Year, becoming the fifth female
winner to win the title since it was first
awarded in 1956. She earned it, too, hav-
ing swum the 200 metre backstroke in
just 2:09.86 minutes this past March,
breaking the Icelandic and Nordic re-
cords. Furthermore, she was the first
Icelandic athlete to earn the right to par-
ticipate in this year’s Olympic Games,
which will commence in Rio on August
5.
Upon receiving the award, Eygló not-
ed that it was a huge honour that would
encourage her to do even better in 2016.
Eygló will be warming up for her even-
tual, inevitable Olympics triumph at the
17th biennial Games of the Small States
of Europe (GSSE) in San Marino this
June, where she will no doubt crush the
competition. Go Eygló! You’re the best!
Iceland’s year
in: football
by John Rogers
Supporting a shit football team is an
emotionally gruelling activity. When
it’s a club team (let’s say, for argument’s
sake, Chelsea FC), people often root
for a sneaky “second team” affiliation,
like Barcelona, to get a vicarious taste
of victory. However, you’re stuck with
your national team, for better or worse.
As such, followers of Iceland’s national
men’s team have suffered almost a cen-
tury of hurt, never once qualifying for
the finals of a major tournament.
That changed in 2015, as a new “gold-
en generation” of male Icelandic foot-
ballers finally broke through into the
2016 Euros. Literal generations of Ice-
landic football enthusiasts have prayed
for this, and now that it’s happened, they
still seem to harbour a sense of disbelief.
Wise footballing heads cited everything
from the building of indoor training fa-
cilities to a retention of former players
in coaching, to the plain old indomitable
Icelandic spirit as possible reasons for
the breakthrough. Whatever it was,
2016 is the biggest year ever for Icelandic
men's football. Áfram Ísland!
It wasn’t such a vintage year for Ice-
land’s famously competitive women’s
team, which has historically been far
more successful than the men’s one. Af-
ter some steady progress into the Euro-
pean Cup finals in previous years, they
failed to qualify for the 2015 Women’s
World Cup, held in Canada. Shame—it
was a surprise hit and reached a record-
breaking TV audience, with an estimat-
ed 25.4 million Americans tuning in to
watch Japan beat the US side 5-2 for the
title. But 2016 is a new year...
Iceland’s
year in:
cage fighting
by Gabríel Benjamin
Following a disappointing loss to Rick
“The Horror” Story in 2014, Gunnar Nel-
son, Iceland’s premiere cage fighter, took
some time off and went back to the draw-
ing board. Gunnar had earned a name
for himself for his prodigious grappling
and his methodical approach to fight-
ing before getting signed onto the UFC,
and he displayed exactly those qualities
when he returned to the octagon in July
to fight and beat Brandon Thatch in just
two minutes and 54 seconds.
With fresh wind in his sails, he ac-
cepted a match against another skilled
grappler, Demian Maia, only to find he
had bitten off more than he could chew—
Gunnar lost the match, receiving 193
punches in the exchange. Gunnar has
reassured his fans, however, that this
setback won’t stop him, and that he still
aims for the top. Also, he and Demian
have remained friendly after the match,
and plan to meet up and train together
later in the year.
Iceland’s year
in: basketball
By Sveinn Birkir Björnsson
What a year it was for Icelandic bas-
ketball. Admittedly, the domestic com-
petition was concluded in much the
same way it usually is, with teams being
crowned Icelandic champions, but that’s
not what’s important. All the glory fit to
print should be reserved for the Icelan-
dic national team, which made its first
ever appearance at a major tournament.
Yes, last summer's EuroBasket was very
much a coming out party for Icelandic
basketball. Granted, the team lost every
game. But every game was lost in a he-
roic fashion. The team held its own in a
historically strong group including hosts
Germany, eventual champs Spain, semi-
finalists Serbia, as well as powerhouses
Italy and Turkey.
As brave as their performance may
have been, the team was still outdone
by the Icelandic fans who accompanied
them to the tournament—they would
have been awarded the tournament’s
MVP trophy, if that were possible, on the
strength of their unbreakable spirit.
On the women's side, the Icelandic
national team returned to international
play after years of inactivity on that
front, somewhat sweetening that acid
taste of seeing prominent teams with-
draw from league play for financial rea-
sons and/or lack of enthusiasm.
Iceland’s year
in: being su-
per strong
by Gabríel Benjamin
Hafþór Júlíusson, AKA “The Moun-
tain,” broke two things in February: A
1,000-year-old weightlifting record, and
the Grapevine's website (our story about
that ancient record was Iceland’s most
read news article of 2015).
Alongside winning the World's
Strongest Viking competition for the
second time in a row, Hafþór also took
on another challenge described in the
Sagas. The previous record holder had
carried a monster wooden log that was
10m long and weighed 650kg for three
steps, but Hafþór managed to improve
on that by a further two. He then took
to his Instagram, exclaiming he was on
his way to his ultimate goal: becoming
The World's Strongest Man. "NOTH-
ING CAN STOP ME!! NOTHING CAN
BREAK ME!"
It’s wasn’t all
bad! For once!
HIGHLIGHTS FROM LAST YEAR’S
SPORTING LIFE
Book online and get 5% discount at: www.sternatravel.com
- The NorTherN LighTs Bus
- The BeauTifuL souTh CoasT
- The VoLCaNiC PeNiNsuLa-reykjaNes
- goLdeN CirCLe & The seCreT LagooN

-
ExpEriEncE thE bEautiful icElandic wondErs
Photo by Art Bicnick
Photo by Art Bicnick
Photo by Nanna Dís