World champion mom lives the handball players' dream
The handball players have two goals at this World Championship: To get as far as possible - and, above all, to keep their chance of making it to the Olympic Games. They already achieved this gloriously 30 years ago. The mother of today's captain Emily Bölk is a world champion and has been to the Olympics twice.
The magical gold medal night in Oslo, the drama of the final against Denmark: the Bölk family are reminiscing these days. The greatest triumph in German women's handball history "has actually been a topic of conversation at home in recent weeks," says Emily Bölk. And smiles. "Of course, it would be a dream come true if something were to happen again."
Shortly before the start of her own World Cup mission, Bölk chats even more than usual with her mother and mentor Andrea, who led the German team to their only major title to date at the World Cup exactly 30 years ago. Now, as captain of the current team, daughter Emily is hoping for a similar high.
"The ultimate goal is definitely to qualify for one of the Olympic qualifying tournaments. That means the quarter-finals," says Bölk, followed by "at least". You can sense that Germany's best-known handball player finally wants more with the national team after years of maturing. The last time a DHB team reached the semi-finals was 15 years ago, when they finished fourth at the 2008 European Championships.
"Put your heart on the plate"
"We have more quality and more variability in the squad," says Bölk. The steadily growing international experience of the German team should help. Four players are now earning their money at top foreign clubs, while Bölk herself made it to the final of the Champions League in the summer with Hungarian heavyweight Ferencvaros Budapest.
The 25-year-old is bursting with energy ahead of her eighth tournament with the national team. At the last World and European Championships, she finished seventh three times. Bölk knows there is more to come. "We'll put our hearts on the court," she promises ahead of the World Cup opener against Japan on Thursday (6pm/Sportdeutschland.TV).
Bölk's drive is (also) fueled by stories from home. In addition to memories of the World Cup, the Bölks are also revisiting old Olympic stories these days. Mother Andrea qualified for the Summer Games twice with the national team (1992 and 1996) - Emily Bölk now wants to do the same.
"It gives me goose bumps," says the backcourt player with the hard-hitting boom in her right throwing arm. Olympic Games, for which a German women's handball team last qualified in 2008, are "simply the greatest thing an athlete can experience". Now she and her team "have it in our own hands to achieve a place that can make it possible for us. I will do everything I can to make this dream come true."
The German national handball team, led by captain Emily Bölk, aims to reach the Olympic Games and defend their past glory, as Emily's mother, a world champion, had achieved this feat 30 years ago at the handball world cup. In her pursuit of this dream, Emily draws inspiration from her mother's achievements and her own experiences playing for top-tier clubs like Ferencvaros Budapest.
During the handball world cup, Emily and her team, with four players in top foreign clubs, hope to showcase their increased quality and variability in the squad to qualify for one of the Olympic qualifying tournaments, the quarter-finals. The ultimate goal for this DHB team, as Emily continues to emphasize, is to make it to the Olympics, just like her mother did two times.
Source: www.ntv.de
