Celebrating the International Handball Week between 12 and 18 July, the IHF.info website talked with several players regarding the upcoming Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but also trying to find out what handball means for them and how they try to create a legacy in the sport.

Granollers, a city close to Barcelona, has always been a hotbed for handball, creating fantastic players, hosting the Barcelona 1992 Olympic Games, as well as the final of the 2021 IHF Women’s World Championship and one of the Paris 2024 Men’s Olympic Qualification Tournaments in recent history.

But until line player Kaba Gassama, the women’s handball team in Granollers has never sent a player into the Spain women’s senior national team. However, Gassama is used to writing history and putting her heart on the line for handball. And not only in Spain.

The 26-year-old stalwart, who is entering her prime, hails from a sporting family. One of her brothers, Mamadou, currently playing for Portuguese champions Sporting CP, is also a handball player. Another brother, Sekou, is a football player and has played for several Spanish teams and in the past season has featured in Cyprus, for Anorthosis Famagusta.

Kaba’s younger brother, Goundo, who is still a teenager, has also followed in her footsteps and plays as a goalkeeper for Granollers’ younger age category teams, aiming to become a professional in the future.

But for Kaba, it was always about handball.

“Growing up in Granollers, I started playing handball because my older brother played. I came to watch him, he played very well and was having fun. I always liked the sport and I tried to get better and better. Granollers is a city where you can play handball a lot, from a young age, so I always liked the sport and I had the chance to learn it, so it was never a question,” says Gassama.

After six years in Granollers, in 2020, when she was 23 years old, the line player moved to France, where she played one season for Neptunes de Nantes and one year for Fleury Loiret HB, before signing for German champions SG BBM Bietigheim – rebranded this summer as HB Ludwigsburg – in 2022.

However, her potential was identified by Spain, as she made her debut in the senior national team in 2017, when she was only 20 years old. With a strong tradition in developing excellent line players on both sides of the ball – both in defence and in attack – Spain were always a powerhouse in that respect and Gassama did not make her debut at the Olympic Games at Tokyo 2020.

But now, at Paris 2024, she is a core member of the roster, which was taken over by experienced coach Ambros Martin, who is also due to make his debut at the Olympic Games, after shining at club level.

“I am ecstatic to be here and feature for Spain at the Olympic Games, a huge highlight for all handball players. This is a special competition for everybody, and I am really looking forward to play for my national team, because it is truly a special feeling and a lot of responsibility,” says Gassama.

Spain have always been a difficult team to play against, due to their defence-first mentality, as “Las Guerreras” – the “warriors” in English – earned that nickname due to their fantastic grit, making the matches as difficult as possible for the opponents by fighting for every ball, trying to stop every attack.

A bronze medal at London 2012, just as Gassama was growing up, is their best performance at the Olympic Games, which will be surely hard to match at a stacked edition at Paris 2024, where Spain are due to face Hungary, the Netherlands, reigning Olympic champions France, Brazil and Angola in the preliminary round.

“There are only 12 teams at the start and this is a very difficult competition, with matches every two days and a lot of tough opponents even in the preliminary round. Just looking at the opponents makes you think about the quality of the competition and there will be no easy matches at Paris 2024,” says Gassama.

“We are quite a young team, with many new players, young ones, in the squad, but I really like the spirit, I really like how we are playing and trying to give our best every time. We have an experienced coach, we know our style and I think we will be a team which is hard to beat.”

Prior to the Olympic Games, the IHF also celebrates the International Handball Week, which spans between 12 and 18 July and will be marked by handball activities throughout the world. For the players called up for the national teams, the celebration will mean more work and intense training for the biggest prize of all, with the focus switching on the race for a gold medal in Paris.

For Gassama, the daughter of Senegalese parents who emigrated from the African country more than 40 years ago, the connection to the homeland was always important. Crucial, one could say. Therefore, she has always felt a calling to Senegal and used handball to try and improve the life of the children there.

Back in 2023, she teamed up with her brother, Mamadou, to create the “Gassama Brothers Tournament”, a friendly competition which aimed to showcase handball to Senegalese children and display the benefits of the sport, the importance of teamwork, creating a platform for development.

“The sport is crucial, especially in countries like Senegal. Everything that can be done to promote handball, especially women’s, is amazing and it is not for the sport, it is also for the values it has. I have been there and I will continue to return, because I believe that handball can help a lot, especially through education. Handball is a beautiful sport and I think it can change lives. I think this project is also about creating a new vision for the world for these young kids,” concludes Gassama.