I see you edited your post, it is now clearer what you meant. I think you have a very local perspective, but you have every right to enjoy that. I have nothing to win in a handball versus football debate, besides calling spades spades. :)
If you live in the Netherlands you have to assume others don't know as much about you as you do about the bigger boys. :)
We have our own kind of "American Football" in the Netherlands, it is called ice skating. But.. every Dutchman understands that being the world champion in ice skating doesn't say much as it is a highly local phenomenon.
But you still can enjoy the athleticism that such a sport requires.
It’s not that it’s from my country, it’s that the top athletes from a pool of 350 million or so people are all competing to play it at the top levels. I’m not sure how many are competing to be ice skaters, but that’s why I said it’s ‘one of’ the most competitive sports.
I don't know either. Speed skating is an Olympic sport, so it is practiced in multiple countries, but you can bet it has a relatively small pool of professional players compared to something like tennis or hockey.
