This article discusses handball, a team sport played with a ball and two competing teams. - Gensheimer frequently visualizes his father while singing the anthem.
Losing his dad shortly before the 2017 Handball World Championship weighed heavily on the mind of ex-national team captain, Uwe Gensheimer. "During those games, I kept picturing my father's image as the national anthem played," Gensheimer shared with the "Mannheimer Morgen" on Tuesday.
In January 2017, the elite left-back grappled with a critical choice - whether or not to participate in the upcoming tournament. "It was a decision I didn't want to make alone," admitted Gensheimer. To seek counsel, he turned to his family. "They told me, 'Your father would've wanted you to play.' "
Still pondering over his decision in 2023, Gensheimer confesses, "I'm not sure to this day if playing in the World Championship was right or wrong. Was it a distraction? Or did I use it to bury my emotions?" He doesn't have a definitive response.
Gensheimer stepped down from the national squad in 2021. After one last season with Rhein-Neckar, the 37-year-old will take on a new role as the sports director at Mannheim.
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- Despite the pain of his father's death, Uwe Gensheimer decided to represent the German National Handball Team in the 2017 Handball World Championship.
- The Rhine-Neckar Lions, based in Baden-Württemberg, will miss the skilled left-back Gensheimer, who announced his retirement from Bundesliga after the 2022-2023 season.
- Gensheimer once captained the German National Team in an international handball match, where he felt a strong emotional connection during the performance of the national anthem.
- After attending the Handball World Championship in 2017, Gensheimer concluded his last season with the Bundesliga team before taking on the sports director role at his hometown club, Mannheim.
- Uwe Gensheimer, a former national team handball star and the proud son of Mannheim, visualized his father's image as he sang the anthem in an emotional international match.
- Although Gensheimer regretted the decision to participate in the 2017 Handball World Championship while dealing with his father's death, he remained one of Germany's top handball players in the Bundesliga.
- With Uwe Gensheimer departing as captain, the German National Handball Team will face new challenges in international matches and the Handball World Championship.
Source: www.stern.de
