Lekic: “Women’s sport is growing. And it’s not even a question”

Recorded in conjunction with the Women’s Competition Conference, held in Vienna on 12 and 13 May, the podcast features the five top players talking about many topics — the visibility of women’s handball, the issue of balancing the demands of the season with enough rest for the athletes, maternity leave, player dropout, role models in the sport and the future. For those who have only seen them on court, a listen to the episode will reveal a new side to the five. 

With Radicevic and Lekic retiring from their on-court careers this season, Pena hanging up the handball shoes about one year ago, Althaus now well experienced in her post-player career and Gros coming to the end of hers, the five offered plenty of insights gained through years at the top level. 

Regarding the first topic, the current visibility of the sport, Gros said, “The new system of playing the EURO, for example, where there are these, let’s say, smaller countries, who came into the competition — of course this was a very big part of spreading women’s handball to get more viewers, to get more popular. I think that was a huge step towards a good future for women’s handball.”

In the conversation moderated by Simona Margetic, the five discussed the current position of women’s handball in-depth, agreeing that the internet and social media are enormous factors of importance — and highlighting how that has changed during their careers. But aside from the general increase in the visibility of handball with the advent of the internet, Lekic highlighted how women’s sport has been experiencing a surge in recent years. 

“I would say that there is a trend in the world, and we are all feeling this in, let’s say, two years, maybe starting with the women’s football [World Cup] final and this kind of things, that women’s sport is growing. And it’s not even a question. Handball is having a small place in it and we have to be realistic,” said Lekic. “We have to be realistic fighting for the space with the other women’s sports. We are still the ones who really need to learn from the others.” 

The topic of balancing the demands of the season with rest is always a complicated one, with many factors. Radicevic said that the players must use their opportunities to speak loudly in order to share their side of the situation. 

“We know that every sport wants promotion, sponsors, money — it’s normal. It’s business in a way. But another way also, we as players must protect our health — mental health and physical health,” said Radicevic. “We should be more sensitive to hear the players and find the balance between the players and people who organise.” 

Althaus added, “For the calendar, I think there’s a lot of things. You have different views. You have the national team views, like, who wants to take of course more players. Then you have the players, which needs the breaks. 

“You cannot make everybody happy but it’s good to try and listen to find the balanced way.”

Moving on to maternity leave, Pena said: “I work for the women’s players association in Spain and this is one of the topics that is always, always on the table. It depends on the laws of the country, and also on the voluntary of the club. Both I would say, because some countries don’t really support this on the players’ contract, but the club makes some kind of agreement with the wishes of the player, which I think is super fine — it should be always like this.”

Concerning player dropout, Gros said: “The problem of this dropout or something maybe can be also that it's lacking this joy. It's immediately about the result, you know, like they're immediately putting on this scoreboard and they’re already counting the goals. These kinds of things. It’s not about that in the first years of handball or whichever sport.

“I think it's a lot about this joy, having the joy and fun in the trainings, and especially not about the competition, especially not from the early age.”

Lekic added: “The handball court should be a safe place. A place where we should feel the most happiest, a place where you're creating friendships, a place where you’re inspired by your role models.” 

Overall, the commonalities and diversity in experience from the five players provided a comprehensive overview of handball in recent years and how the sport is being shaped now, naturally with a specific focus on the women’s game, although many of the topics apply more broadly as well. 

Listen to the podcast here.

Photos © Eva Manhart