Mørk: “It's a hunting season for Team Esbjerg”

Mørk and her partner, Swedish international Jerry Tollbring, welcomed their daughter Tyra in May. They announced their pregnancy in October — not long after Mørk had celebrated a long-awaited Olympic gold medal with Norway. 

“We have been quite lucky. She is a very kind and sweet little baby girl, so we are really enjoying it, but of course, it's a lot of planning — more planning than we're used to. The family meetings are now necessary to go through to get everything to work,” says Mørk. 

“I was really happy when I actually found out that I was pregnant, so that I would have a natural break. My body needed it also — to have a break after the Olympics and after some years with a lot of games, so the timing was excellent, I must say. Also, we were, of course, very fortunate that it worked out so fast so well, and I had a good pregnancy.” 

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The naturally imposed break from handball was perfect for Mørk regarding more than just the physical side — it also served as a mental refresher that has helped her come back to feeling herself in a certain way. 

“I started to miss myself and to play handball again, and that was exactly the feeling I was waiting for — to get excited to be back,” says Mørk. “You're out of your job — like, almost for eight months, where you can't do your job, so that’s been in a way strange, but it has helped a lot. I started to miss handball, and I was really looking forward to coming back and it's worked out well.”

Seeing players off for maternity leave, then returning to the court and delivering at the top level not so long after, has become increasingly common. That ability to come back fast relies on keeping up with training throughout the pregnancy, and Mørk has several teammates between her club and national sides that have paved the way in that, with the help and support of the experts around them. 

“I had a good pregnancy,” says Mørk. “I was tired a lot, but that was it. I was not really sick or anything, so I was training as long as I could, quite normal, and then, of course, the last couple of weeks were different. 

“We have a lot of Norwegian players especially with good experience and also the physical coaches from the national team have a lot of experience. I think that helped a lot, of course, but again, every pregnancy is different and everyone who is becoming a mom has a different experience. I think that it was fortunate for me that I'm not the first one doing this, so I have a lot of help, and I could train quite well.”

Mørk is proud of the way the Norway national team, which has famously been a pioneer in pregnancy and motherhood, has managed this area.  

“In the Olympics, we had 50:50 with mums and with ‘normal athletes,’ so we are used to it and there's been a lot of girls going the same way as me,” she says. “I think the federation in Norway also saw that if we want to prolong our career and still have a baby, we need to do it in the best possible way. 

“I also felt like there was no question for me if I would go back or if I would come back. I was just like, I know I'm going to get the help that I need, no matter how my pregnancy is going.

“It's also like a lot of different experiences — everything has been shared — and I think you feel you're in good hands. Especially when you're a national player from Norway, then you know it's going to work out. They made it possible to also be a professional athlete and play in the best clubs and with the national team. In a way, it makes you quite proud and it's quite remarkable and nice to be part of one of the leaders in that area.”

Norway have been leaders in assisting their players through their pregnancies and returns to the court, but other teams have also built strong track records in this regard. Team Esbjerg, where there have been several pregnancies in recent years, is one of them. 

“It's tough to tell your boss that you're pregnant because, you know, we are not working in an office, so it's going to affect them in another way. But Esbjerg were also really, really nice and they were so genuinely happy for me,” recalls Mørk. 

“There was no pressure, like, stressing about coming back or anything like that. But you know, I also made it very clear that this season I will be ready, so that made everything even easier, and also not feeling the pressure that you were pregnant or that you have to come back faster or anything like that.”  

For Mørk, the initial stage of her pregnancy, the early part of last season, was also focused a little on rehabilitation following the demanding period up to the end of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

“It was a good time for me to also get some rest and try to get my body back in shape, in a way. Resting because my legs were quite, how to say… they were quite finished after the Olympics, so they needed a break.

“It was actually like rehabilitation for my body,” says Mørk. 

As an elite athlete, Mørk is accustomed to pushing her body to its limits, but being pregnant meant she had to be more aware of exactly how she was pushing it — now there was another person to be aware of and any pain or difficulty she might be feeling could be because of that growing human being. 

“Normally I'm quite used to having, you know, pain and just working through it. But now it was different — if I felt something, it was not necessarily because of my body but because of the one that's inside me, and also to take that into consideration, so in a way it made me more aware. 

“Now I have to think about her and also her development. That was, in a way, nice to experience and it also makes you a bit calm. You have to take it seriously because there is another human being that's being made. So that was maybe like, in a way, the most difficult thing, but also easy, because it wasn't because of me. 

“I think all handball players or athletes, in a way, have a very big ego and I think it's also good to put the ego aside and not be the number one priority. I think that's also healthy.”

The timing for Mørk does seem to have aligned perfectly. With her pregnancy coinciding with not only the end of the Olympic cycle but the start of a new season, and then giving birth in May as that season came to an end, she could line up her training perfectly to be ready for 2025/26. 

“The last part of the [2024/25] season, I was training a little bit with the team and then we had summer and I was ready when the pre-season started,” says Mørk of her return after welcoming her daughter. 

“I was prepared to have a lot of struggles. I didn't know what to expect, so I think my expectations were not too high, but after a couple of weeks I felt really good. 

“I was just trying to do what sounds right for me. I could start to run after a couple of weeks and then I just started to move, and I used the summer to really try, like, ‘what can I manage right now?’ And I just took it step by step. But I have to say, for me, I think I was lucky in a way — I didn’t have too many struggles. 

“At the moment, it's just like I have to take it in consideration all the time that I'm not fully, fully recovered in a way. I lost a whole year of handball and even more training, so I'm still in the space where I'm trying to build myself back up. But I think I'm now on a good path and taking steps every day and I just need more training and a little bit more time. It's also not right now that I need to be in the best shape, but hopefully at the end of the season when things are very decisive, then I will be my old self — and also hopefully a better version.”

The start of the EHF Champions League Women season is not far away, with the first games taking place on Saturday 6 and Sunday 7 September. On a domestic level, Esbjerg started their season at the end of August. At the time of the interview, Mørk had just been back on the court for the first time, as part of the pre-season.

“It was really, really nice to be back,” she says. “I missed it and missed being part of a team.  

“I want to play 60 minutes and I want to start every game, and I know that's not possible — not yet. But in my mind, I want to get there, of course, and I think that's nice to have that feeling that for me, it's not like I'm just happy to be there. I want to be better as well. The day I don't want to get better as a handball player is the day that I will stop.” 

Mørk does not take her excitement to be back on court for granted. As she alluded to, the naturally imposed break that came with her pregnancy was about more than where she was physically. No one can doubt Mørk’s passion for handball, but there can still be hard moments. So, what do those look like for her? 

“The down moments are when it demands a lot of you as a person. It's a lot of travel and also a lot of pressure,” says Mørk. “If you don't have pain and you're a handball player, then something is very strange. So, I think the down moments are, for sure, when you are tired, you didn't get enough sleep, you didn't get enough to eat or you’re just low. And, of course, it's hard to get some hits and to get some ‘not flow’ in the games and stuff like that, or lose.

“I can only speak for myself, but I am the one who's putting the most pressure on myself. You can get disappointed and then you have to deal with that in a way. 

“But when we finally won in Paris, I really felt like it was all worth it. For me, that's the price of it all. So that was really nice, and just take a break on that high. Now, I'm hoping that the lows are far, far away and a long time coming, so now I'm trying to keep it light, trying to get excited and I already feel happy to play again.” 

While 2024/25 was a solid season for Esbjerg, who reached their fourth straight EHF FINAL4 and placed second in the Danish league, they did not achieve the goals they are chasing. The hunger ahead of the 2025/26 season is therefore huge. 

“The team did really well last season, even though we had a lot of players going out. There were a lot of changes and a really tough season for the team,” says Mørk. “This season, we want to do better than last season, so it's kind of a hunting season for Team Esbjerg. This year, we will come back. 

“We had a lot of changes and also now a lot of new girls from the team, which is different from the last couple of years. [Those years] We added like one or two new players; now it's more, so six, seven new players. 

“You're going to see a different kind of team, but still, we have a lot of quality and quite a younger team than the last couple of seasons, which is really nice. The hunger is definitely there. I just think that experience also needs to be learned during the season, and I think that's also good in a way. But for sure, we want to do better than last season and that means winning the Danish league again and hopefully get to the FINAL4 and see what happens there, but that's a long, long way.

“We have a really tough group so we will start to focus on the group, doing our best. But it's hunting season, for sure.”

Photos © Anze Malovrh / kolektiff (main & in-text); Uros Hocevar & Sasa Pahic Szabo / kolektiff, nhcfoto.dk (in-text)