Omoregie basks in the Olympics experience, after first-ever Slovenia win

Slovenia women’s national senior team had already written history by securing a place at the Olympic Games in April, but now they delivered another page of said history with their maiden win in the competition, dominating the Republic of Korea, 30:23, after the Asian side had previously beaten Germany.

Three years ago, in their opener against Denmark, Slovenia conceded an eight-goal loss, and some of the players, despite being clearly awed by the magnitude of their performance to punch a ticket to Paris 2024, were left in tears, as the emotions were too much to control.

“It was very emotional. Yes, I was very emotional and what fuelled me is that I had this anger in me that I could do more, we could do more. I think all of us knew that we could do more. Each of us knew that. But I'm in one way happy at the end, because it was only the first match,” says Slovenia’s centre back, Elizabeth Omoregie.

“We lost against Denmark. Denmark is Denmark. They are a great team. We showed the first half we played really well. And I think that it was like an alarm and it's better that it happened in the first game. So, we kind of woke up and we had a lot of things to fix and we fixed it in a short amount of time. And I think we're on the right path.”

Slovenia are still minnows in women’s handball, as this is their first Olympics and they have never finished higher than the eighth place at the IHF Women’s World Championship, in 2003, and at the EHF EURO, in 2022. But here, Omoregie feels like everything is different.

“I think the game with Denmark was like a red flag and like an alarm for us that everything is on us and that if we want to win, we cannot depend only on one or two players. We need all of us to play and to show that we are a team. We don't have a team where only a player or two can shine and brings us the win. So, we spoke a lot that we should be like a team, play for each other and enjoy because still from all emotions from the loss against Denmark, we forget sometimes to enjoy the game,” adds Omoregie, who has scored six goals in the first two matches at Paris 2024, four coming in the crucial win against the Republic of Korea.

The centre back, who has been playing for CSM București in the Romanian league since 2018, after making her senior debut at Slovenian powerhouse Krim Mercator Ljubljana in 2014, when she was only 18 years old, has a fantastic background story. Omoregie was born and raised in Athens to a Nigerian father and Bulgarian mother. She was one of four children in the family, which moved to Pleven in Bulgaria, where she went to school.

She first tried track and field, but when she was invited to play handball, she agreed and never looked back. But it would have been very difficult for her to progress in Bulgaria, therefore when she was spotted by Krim, everything changed. As she did not feature in the Bulgaria national team, she got the Slovenian citizenship in 2017 and could feature for Slovenia.

“I always I didn't have a doubt that I want to play for Slovenia because first of all, I wanted to play in the European and in the World Championships and in the back in my head, Olympics were always a possibility. I dreamt about being there at Tokyo, but we did not qualify, but this time we made it,” says the centre back.

“But after all, my dream was always that I want to go to the Olympics and being in this team and accepting me and me choosing Slovenia. It's wonderful and I'm really grateful.”

With two games done and Slovenia still in the hunt for a place in the quarter-finals at Paris 2024, Omoregie is still dreaming ahead for the future and basks in the Olympics experience, where all the athletes in the handball competition are accommodated in the Olympic Village.

“We met a lot of athletes in the Village. It's very nice. I really like that in the Village, somehow everybody is equal. And now is the time to show who everybody really is. It's very nice that everybody has the same attitude. And we all dreamed and we worked hard to be here. So it's a very nice energy in the village,” concludes Omoregie.