Eight big influences in handball for International Women’s Day

“Give To Gain emphasises the power of reciprocity and support. When people, organisations, and communities give generously, opportunities and support for women increase. Giving is not a subtraction, it's intentional multiplication. When women thrive, we all rise,” states the IWD website, outlining the meaning behind the 2026 theme — and ending with a tie-in to a core message behind the Her Playground project.

To celebrate IWD 2026, we look at eight women who have given a lot to handball through their influence on it — while acknowledging these are just eight of the many in various positions who have a daily impact, on the court and off it, big or small. These eight women represent all in our sport. 

Marit Breivik

Now the combination of Norway and women’s handball is synonymous with success, as the side have the biggest collection of medals in the game. But once, they were celebrating trophies for the first time — and the person at the helm for all those firsts was Marit Breivik.

Norway had won four of their now 35 medals before Breivik became head coach in 1994. Then the silverware started rolling in. That first year led by Breivik, Norway took bronze at the EHF EURO. Two silver medals followed, at the EHF EURO 1996 and the 1997 World Championship, and the trophies were not far behind. In 1998, Norway stood atop the EURO podium for the first of now a record 10 times. In 1999, they raised the World Championship trophy. 

The Olympic title was more elusive, with Breivik and her squad taking bronze at Sydney 2000 before clinching gold at Beijing 2008.

Breivik led Norway to a total of 13 medals and paved the way for her head coach successor, Thorir Hergeirsson — who started with eight years as Breivik’s assistant — to build on her achievements. It was not only the medals but the revolution in play and approach that marked Brevik’s legacy.

Breivik’s success and legacy put Norway in the centre of the women’s handball map, pushed the game in general forward and helped open the door for other female handball coaches. 

Katrine Lunde

A round figure of 20 trophies won in major competitions make Katrine Lunde the most titled player in handball — and that is considering only first-place finishes in the Olympic Games, World Championship, EHF EURO and EHF Champions League. Lunde has also won the EHF Cup and another eight national team medals with Norway, and appeared in the final stages of the EHF Champions League multiple times.

Equally impressive is the length of her tenure at the top. Her record seven EURO titles span two decades, with the first taken in 2004 and the last at the most recent edition in 2024. Her three Olympic gold medals were won across a 16-year period, from 2008 to 2024. And it was 14 years from her first world title, in 2011, to her last, in 2025 — after which she retired from the national team. 

It was also 14 years from the time she won her first EHF Champions League title with Viborg in 2009 through the two trophies with Györ to her three-peat with Vipers. As she is in the Women’s EHF EURO, Lunde is the record holder for number of EHF Champions League Women trophies, on seven.

Lunde has quite literally been one of the most influential players on the handball court, with an uncanny ability to perform in the decisive moments and change the momentum in a match completely. It is a team sport, but she has been a key responsible in filling her individual medal cabinet.

Cristina Neagu

Cristina Neagu is a record holder of a different kind — a player who shows what a powerful influence an individual can have in the completely group-oriented part of the game that is attack. Neagu retired at the end of the 2024/25 season as the record goal scorer in both the EHF Champions League and Women’s EHF EURO.

With 1,232 goals in the Champions League, Neagu leads the elite “club of 1,000” — which includes only four other players: Jovanka Radicevic, Andrea Lekic, Anita Görbicz and Ana Gros. Behind those 1,232 goals are the top scorer crowns from three seasons. 

In the EHF EURO, Neagu counts 303 goals and is the only player, male or female, to have passed the 300-goal mark. She was top scorer of the tournament once, in 2010 — when she won her sole EURO medal with Romania.

With her indisputable status as a lethal offensive asset, Neagu was named MVP or in the All-star Teams of various EHF Champions League, EHF EURO and World Championship editions. She is also the record holder for most IHF World Player of the Year awards, with four. 

Anja Andersen

Ask any Dane, and many outside Denmark, who followed handball in the 1990s about the most notable players of that golden period for the Scandinavian side’s women’s national team and 1997 IHF World Player of the Year Anja Andersen will come up. Andersen’s influence on the game has been unique and was part of the reason she earned an induction into the EHF Hall of Fame in 2024.

Not only has Andersen been lauded one of the greatest players of all time, but she truly brought her own style into the game and injected an element of theatre. A tricky and explosive player in all aspects, including through an unapologetic personality that made her controversial as well as hugely successful, no one can say Andersen was forgettable.   

After leaving the court, Andersen cemented her influence through the role of coach. Leading Danish club Slagelse to the EHF Champions League trophy three times between 2004 and 2007, Andersen worked with players such as Bojana Popovic, who herself has gone on to be significantly influential as a coach after her own on-court career — thus building on Andersen’s legacy.

Charlotte and Julie Bonaventura

“It’s just a normal championship — nothing special for us.” These were the words of Charlotte Bonaventura on the eve of the 2017 Men’s World Championship, when she and her twin Julie became the first female pair to referee at a major men’s handball tournament. In their careers, the two whistled 20 major national team championships as well as four European cup finals.

By January 2017, the Bonaventura sisters had whistled finals in all major women’s competitions and had been active in men’s handball on the domestic level in France for some time. For them it was no big deal to make the switch to a men’s national team competition — for handball, however, it was a first. Sometimes a step is natural for the person taking it but a leap forward in the bigger picture.

After that event in January 2017, the Bonaventura sisters became regulars at top men’s championships, and paved the way for other female pairs to follow. They would go on to become the first female referees in any team sport to officiate a men’s Olympic tournament and also take part in the EHF FINAL4 Men. Now, it is not at all unusual to see a female pair on a high-profile men’s match.

“We’re kind of pioneers but, then again, it kind of landed on us. And maybe if we’d been 10 years younger, we might have the third or the fourth to do such things. But of course, we feel privileged,” Julie Bonaventura told eurohandball.com ahead of the home Women’s EHF EURO in 2018.

As Julie highlighted, sometimes the glass ceiling is broken incidentally and it is just a matter of who is there in that moment to do it. But when the glass ceiling exists in the first place, it has to be broken by someone, and in this case it was Julie and Charlotte who drove this part of handball forward.

Asun Batista

Asun Batista is the only handball player to have been named EHF Excellence Awards MVP of their discipline twice, having scooped the award at the first edition in 2023 and again in 2025. That record reflects just how large her presence looms in the beach game.

In terms of single competitions, Batista has been named MVP of four major tournaments: The Beach Handball World Championship in 2022, where she was also awarded best pivot; the EHF Beach Handball EURO in 2023; the European Beach Tour Finals in 2025; and the EHF Champions Cup on four different occasions. 2025 marked the biggest year in her international career, as she won both EURO gold and her fourth ebt title. 

Those trophies added to Batista’s sole world title, won in 2016; four other medals at the Beach EURO and World Championships spanning 2016 to 2023; the top scorer crown at the Beach EURO 2023; and a long list of domestic successes. She was also part of the beach handball showcase at Paris 2024.

The nickname by which she has become known, la emperatriz del balonmano playa — “the empress of beach handball” — is a perfect fit. 

Joyce van Haaster

Turning to another discipline with a standout female player, Joyce van Haaster is one of the most prominent wheelchair handball athletes.

Van Haaster has celebrated two EHF Nations’ Tournament titles with the Netherlands, was named female MVP of the 1st IHF Four-a-Side Wheelchair Handball Championship in 2022 and has made four All-star Teams as goalkeeper. At the EHF Wheelchair EURO 2025, she was one of the most successful goalkeepers, ranking fourth for number of saves. 

Sharing a new side of her story recently, as part of the Her Playground project, van Haaster spoke about the challenge of deciding to play handball in a wheelchair. Having come to the sport before the discovery of a tumour in her leg that changed everything, leaving her fighting a chance of survival as low as 10–20 per cent, van Haaster was initially opposed to the idea. “I worked so hard not to get into the wheelchair, so I was thinking, I’m not going to sit in it for fun.”

Van Haaster says she realised how much the wheelchair could bring her, taking her back to a sport she loved and in which she represented the Netherlands on a Younger Age Category level — and decided to embrace it as a friend rather than an enemy. That example reflects a lifelong attitude of adjusting expectations and exceptional adaptability.

Through her contribution on court but more so how she approaches life overall, van Haaster shows how influence in handball goes beyond the game itself — and how so many women in handball, whether players or not, have had and continue to have an impact in various ways. Inspiration and influence can arise everywhere — especially when opportunities are given.

Photos © EHF archive; kolektiff images/Uros Hocevar/Sasa Pahic Szabo/Jure Erzen/Jozo Cabraja; IHF; Nuno Brites