In July 2022, Germany’s Nieke Kühne appeared at her first-ever IHF Women’s World Championship, when the then 17-year-old left back played at the youth event.

Two years later she was back in the same country at the junior world championship and is now preparing to take to the court for her senior world championship debut, in Stuttgart at the 2025 IHF Women’s World Championship.

“These words are really nice, but sometimes I cannot believe that it's myself they are talking about,” says Kühne about phrases used by the German media such as ‘greatest talents’ and ‘meteoric rise’ to describe her national team career so far.

“It was a fast way to get where I am, but my way is not over. There are many steps left to get to the top level, but it was really fast from the youth national team to get here now and to play at a (senior) world championship. It's unbelievable.”

In those two previous younger age category world championship appearances, Kühne and Germany played off against Norway for 9/10th place both times, with the HSG Blomberg-Lippe player finishing 10th in 2022 and 9th in 2024.

 

Three years ago, Germany lost their 9/10 placement match against the Norwegians (24:32) after defeating Slovakia and Switzerland in the preliminary group stage, but losing to eventual champions Republic of Korea. The main round saw a 31:25 loss against Netherlands followed by a 28:27 win over Romania – where Kühne scored 10 times – and then a 34:21 over the hosts in the 9-12 placement round to set up that play-off against Norway.

“That was a long time ago and the 10th place was not what we expected,” said Kühne about 2022, who scored in all seven games, ending with 41 goals. “It was nice to experience the other countries at a world championship – we were all in the same hotel, and we got to know the other cultures, which, next to the handball, is a nice fact of what you can experience at a world championship.

Two years later Kühne returned to Skopje for the junior global event and it was déjà vu – Norway in the 9/10 placement match – but this time, the Germans completely turned it around winning by 10 (28:18) to finish inside the world’s top 10.

But, once again, a game was lost in the preliminary round – against eventual champions France (29:27) – preceded by two wins, against Serbia (39:18) and Spain (29:27). The main round saw a narrow loss to Sweden (26:25) and a win against China (38:25), which set-up a 9-12 placement against Romania, won 34:32, to set up another Norwegian clash.

“I can remember this world championship more than 2022. First of all, it was special because it was my last younger age tournament and we wanted to have a nice ending – we had a good team and I made many, many new friends there,” says Kühne, who, again scored in all seven games, ending with 27 strikes.

“But we had a tough game against Sweden where we lost. I missed the last shot and maybe if I would have made it, then we would have been one round further so that was not a nice experience. Overall, we couldn't make good placements (in the two world championships), so it was a bit sad to not have the achievements we wanted to have.

“In the end though, it was nice to have all these experiences and they were always a pleasure to play in. I found really nice friends there, and ones which last to this day. Plus, after that defeat against Sweden, we just had to get along with it so it was good to have this experience: when you're on the ground and have to get up you see who is there for you in that moment and that's one of the points, I took out of it.”

A few months after the 2024 IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship, senior women’s national team coach Markus Gaugisch handed Kühne her senior debut – against Norway in October 2024 – and earlier this month called once again, this time to invite her to be part of the German squad who will be competing at Germany/Netherlands 2025.

And as relayed to the German Olympic Sports Federation (DOSB) https://www.dosb.de/aktuelles/news/detail/das-viertelfinale-sollte-fuer-uns-ein-muss-sein the 21-year-old was with her mother when the call came, Kühne fondly remembering that she told the coach to “get to the point” while making small talk on that special call.

“It was a really special moment for me,” starts Kühne with the story. “I was at home, but it was not planned as we had a game abroad. After about an hour of being at home, he (Gaugisch) called me.

“I was so excited about what he wanted to say and, for sure, I knew that it was about the nomination of the 16 players who will go to the world championship. So, we talked about our last home game, but I was just thinking to myself; ‘Okay, nice to talk about this, but now I am just excited, just say to me if I'm in or not’, so this was the moment. After this we went for dinner with my family. It was really special and perfect.”

Despite Kühne’s own uncertainty about being nominated, experienced Germany captain Antje Döll was in no doubt, telling the DOSB that ‘it was clear Markus would nominate her’, going on to praise her potential, her skills and her self-assurance.

So how does that feel for Kühne to have such senior vocal support at such an early stage of her senior career?

“It was really nice and I was really happy to hear these words from our captain, and especially from a person who is really experienced and knows what it is all about in handball. You cannot get a value (put a price) on these words when she says them, I really like what she said,” says Kühne. “The thing about my nomination was that it was clear for her, but I was really sweating to the last minute if I would make it.”

And when she did make it, she found herself training alongside one of her admitted role models, Xenia Smits, now approaching 150 appearances for Germany.

“In the first training sessions it was just unbelievable to train with her, but now I'm a bit more used to it and happy to get to know her and learn from her,” says Kühne about Smits, who also played for HSG Blomberg-Lippe, before reflecting on the fact that she, herself, is now a role model for younger handball players. 

“It's special now that I am starting to have people or children looking up to me as a role model maybe. Sometimes I cannot believe that I'm at this point now where other people are looking up to me.

“There's so much handball can give you,” she adds. “When I am playing myself or watching games on TV, I like the way how people are connecting, the team spirit and how they cheer each other up. Handball is a really fast game and I like to play with all these facilities of strength, speed and team spirit. Many things are happening at the same time for the players and spectators, so it's just exciting to watch. This is the reason I like handball and am not playing a quiet sports like darts, for example.”

Listening to Kühne speak it is clear that this humility is part of her identity, coming hand-in-hand with confidence in her own abilities and progression.

The new addition to the Germany national team was born in the Lower Saxony town of just over 50,000 people, Wolfenbüttel, with her family now based in the smaller Lower Saxony town of 20,000, Seesen.

Seesen lies 45km south-west of Wolfenbüttel and 90-100km east of the two playing halls of the two playing arenas of HSG Blomberg-Lippe: Ulmenallee in Blomberg (Handball Bundesliga Frauen) and the Phoenix Contact Arena in Lemgo (EHF European League).

“I don't think that anybody knows Seesen. It's a really small town where you don't have so much city life. It's small. You can go swimming there, but not so much more – the nearest big town you would know is Hannover, which is one hour away,” she explains.

“But I like Seesen because it's a bit quiet there and I like this lifestyle. We have a house next to some fields and I play in the garden with my siblings, or just enjoy the sun. It's nice and one of my values I really appreciate.”

Now, the waiting is over for Kühne, who is set to complete her triple set of world championship appearances when Germany take on Iceland at the Porsche Arena in Stuttgart in their preliminary group C opener on Wednesday (26 November).

 

“We are totally ready now. It was a long period of training and we want to start now – we are looking forward to Stuttgart and want to play really good games in front of all the fans with really high emotions,” she says.

“I just want to play. I love this game. For sure, it's not easy to play in these games, but we have a really nice team who are always there for me and I get a lot of support from them. The one word I would use to describe our team is flexible, and team-spirit.

QWe have a really strong trust in each other, and one of our strengths is that we are so flexible,” she says. “We have many players with different abilities, and that is maybe the point for our opponents; they cannot say ‘hey, they are just playing on this side, or on this side, or they just have a good defence’. We have everything, but we have to prove this in the games.

“I am just happy to be part of this world championship team, and hope I can help them. I don't have so much experience  but I just want to play how I have been playing in the Bundesliga or in the European League, doing the things which got me into this national team squad. I don't want to think so much. 

“I want to continue to play and to score, but it's not about me, it's about the team. We can make a really nice tournament with all the spectators in Germany first, and hopefully get our dream of playing for gold in Rotterdam.”

Credit main photo: Marco Wolf / German Handball Federation