The German handball players have written their very own winter fairy tale at the 2025 World Cup. Even though it wasn’t enough for a gold medal, young national coach Heike Ahlgrimm sees a positive future on the horizon.
The German handball women caused a stir at the World Cup. Even in the final, the Norwegians, who actually seemed overwhelming, were on the verge of defeat for a long time.
The sensation didn’t materialize, but the prospects for the team are promising.
The German head coach of the female youth team sees the DHB women in a very good position. “We are a young team. We have a lot of players who can play for years to come,” said Ahlgrimm RTL/ntv and sport.de: “The aim has to be to get further into the semi-finals in the next few years and of course to win a medal. Once you’ve experienced that once and once you’ve achieved that, then of course it’s something special and then you become very, very greedy for it. And I think the girls want to continue to do that.”
Thanks to their success, the youngsters now have new role models. “They saw that you can achieve a lot with a lot of team spirit, with passion, with defense. And we weren’t missing much. And these are role models. They’ll look at that,” she continued. “And I hope that a lot of people will now come into the hall and see that that’s where I want to go and that’s what I want to achieve at some point.”
Ahlgrimm sees the spirit in national coach Markus Gaugisch’s team as central to success. “Nobody expected us to win a medal this well, nor did we expect us to be so close in the final and be able to stand up to the world’s best team. In the end, in my eyes, we won silver, not lost gold.”
Further statements from Heike Ahlgrimm about…
… potential for improvement and a summary of the World Cup:
“So what was really strong was our defense with a good goalkeeper. We took a huge step forward there. And that’s why we won a lot of games.
I think what we are still missing are the easy goals and ease in attack. We had to work hard for every goal. The small difference that Norway ultimately had with their truly exceptional players. […] And then in the long term, and that has to be the goal, you can reach the semi-finals and play for the medals.”
… the new role of the German national team after the success:
“We are the hunted now […] – And now it’s going to be much, much harder to stay up there.”
… a coming handball boom in Germany:
“Everyone watches football in Germany. But I believe that we have many sports that are coming along, including handball and basketball, and I believe that we will now see that it will be a boom. Also for the men. The women have shown the way, the men will try to imitate it. And the men have also been successful in the last few years. That’s great for handball. It’s hard work again to keep it that way and that it wasn’t a flash in the pan, but that we now take it up and work on it work to keep things going like this.”
… Germany’s women’s sport and how it sells itself short:
“That’s just society, because regardless of whether we have football, basketball or handball, men dominate. And I don’t think we’ll change that. But I think that many people have now seen that women also play attractive handball or football. And I would like one or two of them to just take advantage of the boom and say: I’ll also support the women and try to continue to work on it together with them in the next few years and build something. The first step has been taken. But we’re still very, very far from it removes that this goes in the same direction.”