Blohm: “I fell in love directly in the first training”

09 Apr. 2024

Blohm: “I fell in love directly in the first training”

The ‘Dream Big’ series focuses on the stories of elite handball players, from childhood or their discovery of the sport through to now. The IHF recognises the important part athletes play as role models for children and young people who dream of becoming professional handball players — or pursuing any goal. With that in mind, this series aims to bridge the gap children and young people may perceive and show them the diverse paths to the top. 

This instalment focuses on Sweden and Györ line player Linn Blohm, who was one of three nominees for the 2023 IHF World Player of the Year — Women award. Blohm is the only one of the 2023 nominees contesting the Olympic Qualification Tournaments, where Sweden hope to make it to the Games for the fifth straight time. 

Two-time World Championship All-star Team line player, two-time Swedish Female Handballer of the Year, nominee for the 2023 IHF World Player of the Year award: The list of accolades make it clear that Linn Blohm is not only one of the best line players in the world, but a consistently top player across all competitions. Blohm is important at both ends of the court for Sweden and EHF Champions League powerhouse Györ. 

2023 was an exceptional year for Blohm, as that was when she made her second appearance in the World Championship All-star Team, after 2019, and ended up nominated for the IHF World Player of the Year and winning the domestic title of Handballer of the Year (for 2023/24) as well. The Swedish Handballer of the Year award was her second, with the first awarded in 2020. She warmed up for her big year in 2023 with an All-star Team nod in the Champions League for the 2021/22 season. 

On a team level, Blohm’s sides have been strongly represented in the top rankings of major competitions in recent years. At Tokyo 2020, Sweden made it to the medal round for the first time, right after which Blohm moved from Baia Mare to Györ. Later that year, Sweden would rank fifth at the World Championship, while Györ would make it to the Champions League final held in early June 2022. At the EHF EURO 2022, Sweden placed fifth. Györ finished the 2022/23 season in the top four again, but did not make it to the final, instead clinching third. Then at the World Championship Sweden co-hosted with Denmark and Norway, Blohm & Co. reached the semi-finals and lost the bronze-medal match by just one goal. 

At the World Championship, Blohm contributed 25 goals and ranked among the top for shooting percentage, penalties drawn and steals. Her individual contribution is undoubtedly a key element of her teams’ successes, and the awards she has received personally are a motivator for Blohm. 

“When you don’t get the medals, then it’s not fun, but somehow this is giving a good feeling, of course. I’m very, very honoured to get this of course and very proud of the work that I have done,” says Blohm, whose next task is the Olympic Qualification Tournament in Debrecen, where Sweden will take on Japan, home side Hungary and Cameroon in the battle for two places at Paris 2024. 

“It's a hard group. Japan played really good in the World Championship — they beat Denmark. So I think they are in a good mode right now and a good self-feeling, with this confidence,” says Blohm, assessing their opponents. “We’re starting with Japan. I think that’s good for us. It’s a very important game. I think Hungary are a team that will take a medal in the future because they are young and they are getting more and more experience, the players now, so they are really good. That will be a very tough game, so it’s a hard group. 

“Cameroon is our last game in the group, and we also have a free day before. But the two first days will be quite tough, especially against Hungary in Hungary, after we played the day before. Handball is very big in Hungary. There will be a lot of people.”

Sweden have just completed a perfect run to the Women’s EHF EURO 2024, set to take place in Austria, Hungary and Switzerland from November 28 to December 15. The qualifiers concluded on Sunday, when Sweden took their sixth win in six games to finish atop their group and book a place at the final tournament. The matches were helpful preparation for the OQTs, although the team are dealing with a major injury right now, which Blohm highlights as a challenge. 

“Unfortunately, we have one of our biggest players injured — Anna Lagerquist, who I have been playing with a lot in the last years as a couple in the middle in defence. That’s a very big loss for us. So, I think for us it has been a lot of trying to find a way how we can defend now,” says Blohm. “We have to cover now. So, I’m feeling like we are in a good way, but we are not there yet. But I really hope that we will be there when we are coming to Hungary.” 

Blohm’s inspiration for starting handball began with the men’s national team, as she was a child watching the decorated Sweden generation known as the “Bengan Boys”, who reached the medal round in every championship held from 1990 to 2002. 

“I was actually quite late starting handball. I was 10 when I started,” says Blohm. “I saw our national team, our men’s national team, on TV — the Bengan Boys. I asked my parents if they could see if there was a handball team close to me, or close to us. I had to ask my dad for like one year but then we finally found one that was closer, and then I started. I fell in love directly in the first training, even if I wasn’t so good at it, but I thought it was so fun.

“I played football before. Playing with a ball, I really liked this. But I thought that this physical [game] was more me than football. I played football until I was 16. I was between football and handball for a long period, but I felt directly that handball was a lot more for me. So I decided that handball is the thing and I just played football for fun.” 

A natural affinity for the game is something many handball players describe. Blohm knew handball was the sport for her in terms of both her enjoyment and what she was able to do on the court. It was also helpful that she grew early. The realisation that she might be able to really make something of a handball career came when she was successful in joining a specialist programme in Gothenburg — one of just five players accepted. At that point, she also joined the record Swedish champions, IK Sävehof. 

“I was very big, like, early in age, so I had some advantage against others. I felt that I was quite good directly, but then it was maybe when I moved [that I knew I could be professional],” says Blohm. “I was born in Stockholm, but when I was 16, I moved to Gothenburg to go to college there. So then I started in Sävehof, and at that time Sävehof had a head coach who was the assistant coach in the national team, for the women. 

“Sävehof was Sweden’s best team and there I came as nobody,” reflects Blohm. “It was there I figured out, OK, I also have to fight. I cannot just live on that I’m big, that I have a bigger talent, but I also have to fight for it. So that move was a very good move for me and then I learnt a lot. And it was maybe when I got the place in in the senior team there then I felt really like, OK, I want to do something bigger. I want to go with the national team.” 

Blohm’s move to Gothenburg took place in 2008. In 2010, she was part of the only Swedish generation so far to win the Youth World Championship. Soon after, she received her first callup to the senior national team. 

“The first thing that happened when I came to my first training was Bella Gulldén coming to me and giving me a big hug,” says Blohm. “For me, she was very big. She was the biggest Swedish star in handball. In my first training she came to me, “congratulations for the gold medal”, and I was a bit starstruck.”

Blohm’s time at Sävehof was crucial in her development, as the team held many of Sweden’s national team players, so was highly competitive. 

“I had some really good players in front of me, in my position. It was when I came to the senior team that I went only as a pivot. Before that, I also played as a back player,” says Blohm. “So actually, it was the national team that made me into a pivot — the youth national team. I played in the youth national team as a pivot, and at home, in Sävehof, as a back player. When I came up to the senior team in Sävehof, then I was only a line player.” 

Considering she is now one of the world’s best in her position on the line, the fact she used to play elsewhere on the court may be surprising. Blohm is sure that time on the back court, which she does miss at times, has contributed to her success on the line. 

“It’s helped me a lot and I think that’s why I was quite good at being a pivot directly, because I knew how I wanted the pivot to move,” says Blohm. 

Blohm’s career has taken her through four countries. From Sweden with her first club Gustavsbergs IF to Sävehof; then to Holstebro, FC Midtjylland and København in Denmark; on to Minaur Baia Mare in Romania; and finally to Györ in Hungary. 

“It’s very interesting. It’s a big experience. Denmark is a similar culture to Sweden, but the handball is totally different. The handball is everything in Denmark. So, there I experienced really how big handball is. In Sweden, OK, we were good at Sävehof and we won, like, everything, but handball is not so big in the country. But in Denmark, everyone was talking about handball. There I really experienced how it is to play in a good league and how big it is,” says the 31-year-old. 

“Romania was totally different than Scandinavia. I was also there when it was Corona, so it was a bit different. But I really liked it, and I’m so happy that I have been in all those countries — to learn, to see how it is, not only as a handball player, but how life is going in those countries. You grow a lot as a person — not only as a player but also as a person, because you’re seeing the world.” 

Now, Blohm looks ahead to the prospect of another Olympic Games, while in the midst of the season with Györ, which sees the team ready for the Champions League quarter-finals to start at the end of April. And after all, what would she say to a kid in the early stages of discovering handball and perhaps dreaming of making it to the biggest stages as well? 

“It’s so important to have fun, but also nothing will come easily,” says Blohm. “There are going to be some tough periods in handball and not all trainings are fun, but in the end, if you’re doing all the things, then big things can happen, and you can reach how far you want to reach.”