For Saribel Deslauriers, handball was always more than a sport. It’s a passion, which flows through her veins. 

Her journey began far from Canadian rinks and courts: born and raised in Mexico, Deslauriers picked up handball at just nine years old, playing through her early years before eventually relocating North.

What started as a personal passion soon turned into advocacy - after volunteering at the Pan American Games, she joined the board of directors of the Canadian Team Handball Federation, where she has spent six years expanding the sport's member base through targeted marketing campaigns and a revitalized social media presence.

Deslauriers has also represented Canada on the continental stage as a Women's Development Coordinator for Inclusion and Diversity with the North American and Caribbean Handball Confederation, and has traveled internationally as a team lead supporting Canadian squads at major events.

 

Now, she joined the Canada women’s youth national team at the 2026 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, where the North American side is featuring for the second time in a row and for the third time in history.

“We are an emerging nation and we are trying to make it grow. A lot of people don't know what handball is in Canada, which is very sad. So us being present in this gives us a platform to grow it and introduce this sport starting from primary schools, and then grow it into senior categories,” says Deslauriers.

Canada made their debut at this age category in the inaugural edition, in 2006, when they hosted the competition and finished 10th. Then, a hiatus of 18 years followed, before they ended up 31st in 2024, when the competition took place in the People’s Republic of China.

“We are super proud of being here. We are speechless sometimes that we were able to qualify. At the beginning of the match, we were up 2:0 and then, at half-time, we were just seven goals behind against Sweden. The level of competition that exists between Europe, Asia and the North American continent - there is absolutely no comparison,” adds Deslauriers.

Canada will always stay in the history of women’s handball, as Montreal 1976 was the first-ever edition of the Olympic Games where women’s handball was played. In that edition, Canada ended up on the last place, but kickstarted an interested in the sport in the country.

50 years later, Canada sent teams at both the junior and the youth IHF Women’s World Championships, finishing 31st at China 2026 and now aiming to secure an even better finish in Romania.

 

“I think our debut match here against Sweden was actually fantastic. The first half that we had, the girls came out and gave it their all. We are very proud of them. We have been preparing for a long time - it's been two weeks since we were in Spain, and then we had a match in Vienna. So we are super impressed with how they performed,” adds Deslauriers.

Eventually, Canada did concede a 14:36 loss against Sweden, scoring only five goals in the second half, but this is a learning experience, setting the tone for the future, especially as on their own continent, Canada won the 2025 IHF Trophy Women for the Under-17 teams, taking five wins in five matches against Mexico, Cuba, USA, Greenland and Puerto Rico.

For the 2026 IHF Women’s Youth World Championship, Canada prepared almost one month in Europe, spending two weeks in Spain, where they played against Spain, Portugal and Turkiye, then went to Austria, where they played an Austrian club team in Vienna and then had a friendly match against a Romanian Under-18 club team.

This experience has been crucial for Canada, which are trying to bridge the gap to the top teams in the world. And Deslauriers might have a voice in this, especially as she was named in the IHF Women’s Handball Working Group, bringing together leading female voices from across all areas of the game to drive implementation of its Four‑Year Plan 2026–2029 on women in handball.

Deslauriers, who is joining Canada’s team in Romania on a voluntary basis, is also the Executive Director at Downtown Truro Partnership, a non-profit organization that aims to revitalize the economic, cultural, and social aspects of downtown Truro.

And that experience might be valuable as this IHF Women’s Handball Working Group aims to attract more girls to handball, identify and educate female referees, promote female leadership and build a more effective framework for women’s handball in every region of the Globe.

“I was actually very shocked when I got the email. I was like, wait, what? So I had to read it twice to make sure that it was me, and that I did not make a mistake, that it wasn't somebody else. I feel extremely proud for being in this Working Group. I'm going to do all my best to try to grow this sport back home. It's an incredible honour to be part of this and I hope we will do great things for women’s handball,” concludes Deslauriers.