"It's great to be able to compete in this position for so many years": Proud Karsten prepares for seventh World Championship

There are not a lot of players who can say that they have played in seven editions of the IHF Women’s World Championship. The pool of players who can say that they scored at least 150 goals in the world handball flagship competition is even smaller.

But the Venn diagrams will converge at Germany/Netherlands 2025 for Elke Karsten, Argentina’s top scorer in the South American team’s history at the World Championship. So far, the left back has featured in six editions of the competition and scored 148 goals.

Germany/Netherlands will see her make a bit more history for Argentina, a team which she debuted for in 2013, when she only turned 18 years old, and represented more than 130 times, scoring over 450 goals.

Her name is anything but Argentinian – with Austrian, German and Swiss ancestry – but Karsten was born in Quilmes, just a stone’s throw from capital Buenos Aires, and fell in love immediately with handball. 

Soon, it became apparent that she is very good at handball. And just after her debut in the national team, she was part of the team which took part at the 2013 IHF Women’s World Championship, with Karsten being the youngest player in the squad.

 

“The truth is that it was my first World Championship with Argentina, I never had played a competition like this, not even with the junior or youth teams. The memories I have are amazing, it was very nice back then. It was different, I was the youngest in the team. I didn't have pressure. I just had to play. I didn't have any responsibility. It's always nice to remember that time, especially with the players I was able to share that moment,” says Karsten in an interview with ihf.info.

Since then, the left back has featured in all of the editions of the IHF Women’s World Championship, scoring 148 goals in 38 matches. At Spain 2021, she was the third best scorer of the competition, with 43 goals. Two years earlier, at Japan 2019, she also broke into the top-10 goal scorers standings, with 47 goals.

“The truth is that it was way. It's still a long way But I think it is a very nice one. It involved a lot of learning. Little by little, I grew and took on responsibilities. Today I am one of the most experienced in the group. And having learned from so many players with whom I shared and having had good experiences and bad experiences, I think it was all worth it,” adds the left back.

Indeed, Karsten is now 30 years old and has had an eventful career after leaving her homeclub, Quilmes, in 2016. She played in Spain, at CBF Málaga Costa del Sol and Superamara Bera Bera, before moving to Hungary, where she had two years in DVSC Schaeffler. 

For one year, she moved to Norway, where she featured for Molde HK, before signing for French side Bourg-de-Péage Drôme Handball. Since January 2023, Karsten has been back in Spain and featuring once again for Bera Bera.

“The truth is that adapting to Spain was much easier. In the end, it's our language and they are culturally quite similar to what Argentina is. In Hungary and Norway it was much harder. The culture is very different. The level, especially in Hungary, is different. I think they were experiences with both good things and bad things,” says Karsten.

“On a sporting level, I think I was able to improve and learn a lot. Not only from training, but also competing against top players, top clubs. I think that makes you grow. And on a personal level, I think I matured a lot. Today I could solve a problem with more tranquility than when I left.”

 

Those experiences, however, made Karsten grow step by step, bit by bit, to become a true leader in the current Argentina team.

“La Garra” had never progressed from the preliminary round in their first 10 appearances at the IHF Women’s World Championship, but have had back-to-back main round spots secured at Spain 2021 and Denmark/Norway/Sweden 2023, when they ended up 21st and 20th in the final standings.

The only way is up, thinks Karsten.

“It's great to be able to compete in this position for so many years. And on a personal level, it's a pride to be able to participate in my seventh World Championship. I think that speaks volumes. It is an important competition for us and we want to represent the country with our best performances,” adds the left back.

The draw has not been especially kind to Argentina, which will face two European teams in their preliminary round group in the Ahoy Arena in Rotterdam, the Netherlands and Austria, plus debutants Egypt.

Facing the co-hosts in front of a sold-out arena is no easy feat, while Austria are a team which Argentina know well, with the South American beating their opponents in the same phase, 31:29, at Spain 2011. Then, Karsten scored 11 goals, her best performance in a single match at the World Championship.

“You have two top teams in Europe, plus Egypt, which is new and probably has a lot of desire to show themselves. The goal is to get into the main round by winning one or two games and continue to grow from the previous editions. There are a lot of players who play in Europe now, in Spain, in Slovakia,” says Karsten.

 

“We have more players featuring in Europe now and I think that adds a lot on an individual and group level so that we can continue to grow and improve.”

For Karsten, though, the ambition is to go even higher. Argentina’s best performance at the World Championship is an 18th place, sealed in 2015. And with only two wins in this edition, they will get to 20 wins, a milestone which has been a focus over the last years.

“I think 2019 and 2021 have been my best World Championships,” says Karsten, who featured in only three matches in the previous edition, due to injury.

Why not another good one in 2025 when the left back has hit her prime?