Following in her mother’s footsteps: Jazmiera Ditter keeps the dream alive

10 Mar. 2021

Following in her mother’s footsteps: Jazmiera Ditter keeps the dream alive

Throughout Gender Equality Month in March, the IHF celebrates women in various roles in handball in a special series. Part one tells the story of Monique and Jazmiera Ditter, mother and daughter, who both represented Canada’s women’s national handball team in different generations.

Handball inspires by the power of example and there are many cases where players have followed their parents into handball.

Like the story of Monique Ditter, former goalkeeper of the Canada women’s national team between 1981 and 1991, who inspired her daughter Jazmiera to take up handball and follow in her footsteps. 

Jazmiera, just fresh off of celebrating her 20th birthday, has been playing handball for six years and, after juggling between handball and football, has decided to follow her heart and represent Canada at the highest level.

“To see my daughter pursue her sporting dream in handball as well is incredible. She was also great in football, being on the shortlist for Canada’s national team for the FIFA U15 and FIFA U17 World Cups,” said Monique Ditter to ihf.info.

Yet, handball is in the family DNA and when it was calling, Jazmiera saw it both as an opportunity to come back home and try and emulate her mother’s performances for the women’s national team.

Despite not taking part in an IHF Women’s World Championship since 1997, when they finished 20th, Canada have been one of the teams that have been a constant presence at the Pan American Games in the last 20 years.

In fact, Monique Ditter’s best performance with the Canadian national side was the 2nd place at the 1987 Pan American Games in Indianapolis, finishing just behind the hosts, the United States of America.

“My journey is one that I will cherish forever. The dream of representing your country, well, it proved to be the greatest feeling in the world. Playing for Canada overseas, European tours were all amazing, but there was something very special about the Pan American Games with 525 other Canadian athletes by our side.

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“But even more incredible, I spotted five members of my family sitting behind a 3 x 5-foot Canadian flag draped over a railing of just over 80,000 people. I could not believe it. I had not seen them in almost 10 months as I had been training full time in the province of Quebec almost 2,500 km away from home. When the ceremonies were over and we cleared the track, my family came down to greet me and that was the greatest moment of my career,” added Monique Ditter.

A proud mother
Monique Ditter’s journey for the Canadian national team ended in 1991, yet her ties with handball did not end there. She served as a goalkeeper coach for the men’s national team between 1997 and 1999 and was also a coach at high school level between 2003 and 2015.

When Jazmiera was born in 2001, it was almost a logical step to take up sports, with a great role model at home.

A talented athlete, Jazmiera played football for many years including at the collegiate level in the United States, but her mother’s penchant for handball made her even more curious about the sport. Ultimately, last winter, Jazmiera decided to focus her sporting career solely on handball.

“I chose to play the game, because my mother introduced me to it and she brought me at a junior women’s provincial team, which took part in the National Championships. With this team and seeing a very fast-paced game, I really fell in love with handball,” said Jazmiera Ditter.

“I love playing contact sports and the sheer speed of handball attracted me to it the most. This makes it very exciting to watch and even more exciting to play,” added the 20-year-old left wing.

Monique did not make it a must for her daughter to start playing handball, but she takes pride in Jazmiera’s beginnings in handball. It reminds her a little bit about her own first steps in handball, in the beginning of the 1980s, when only a handful of schools introduced the sport at a junior level in Canada, when she was in the 10th year of school.

Now, Jazmiera is on the fast track to represent Canada at the highest level, having already donned the national team shirt for the junior women’s national team at the IHF Trophy in 2019.

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“I feel honoured to represent my country. It was very humbling to stand on the centre line during the IHF Trophy, while our national anthem was playing. Seeing the flags of all of the participating countries and wearing the Maple Leaf on my uniform is when it really hit home and made me realise what an honour it was and how fortunate I am just to have that opportunity to represent my country,” added Jazmiera.

The European dream 
Jazmiera was too young to see her mother play handball, but when she overheard her coach talking about Monique and her games for the Canada women’s national team, it was the moment she knew she would be following in Monique’s footsteps.

Yet, the young Canadian left wing is aiming higher.

“My ultimate dream would be to someday play in the Olympic Games and at the IHF Women’s World Championships. At a club level, I would also love to someday play in a semi-pro league in Europe in any of the divisions if the opportunity presented itself,” said Jazmiera.

And for Monique, it would also be a dream come true. While she might have never played in Europe, she believes in Jazmiera’s talent and fuels her dream.

“As for advice, I continue to give her the same advice I had given her all of her life: ‘Go out there, play hard, leave it all on the field, and be sure to have fun.’ I always told her, win or lose, if she does that, she will succeed,” concluded Monique.

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