From 27 to 29 July, the ‘IHF Beach Handball Showcase’ will take place on the fringes of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

Three men’s and three women’s All-star Teams, plus the French men’s and women’s national teams will play Beach Handball games across three days coached by six world-renowned, medal-laden coaches.

In total, 64 (32 men, 32 women) of the world’s best Beach Handball players from 18 countries will feature, including players from Argentina, Brazil, Croatia, Denmark, France, Germany, Greece, Hungary, Islamic Republic of Iran, Netherlands, Norway, People’s Republic of China, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Spain, United States of America and Uruguay. 

In a special series of question and answers, IHF.info hears from players and coaches selected for the showcase. This time, it is multiple medal-winning and regular All-star Team member, Spain player Asun Batista, one of the players at the event in Paris.

IHF.info: How do you feel to be selected for this event? 

Asun Batista: It is the closest thing to the dream that I always wanted to fulfil in this sport. Being able to represent my country in a showcase at the Paris Olympics means that all the sacrifice and efforts I have made for this sport have been worth it.

It has been many years of watching this sport grow and it will be a unique and global celebration for all of us who play Beach Handball. We are very close to it becoming Olympic and I feel really excited to be part of this dream. I feel it as a recognition of my career and the passion that I have always put into growing and showing the world what Beach Handball means to me.

IHF.info: Tell us about your Beach Handball career and your highlights so far…

Asun Batista: My first championship was in 2011, when my track friends invited me to play in a championship to have fun, and there I felt that something caught my attention about this sport.

I have gone on to play for club sides Mijas G-7. Club Balonmano Playa Algeciras, Actually Club AM Team Almeria and Spain of course.

We achieved the greatest group achievement at Budapest 2016 when we beach IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Champions. Individually, I have many awards but the ones I can highlight the most are MVP at the 2018 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Kazan, Russia and the 2022 edition in Heraklion, Greece, plus being voted as the best pivot at the 2023 European Championships in Nazaré, Portugal as well as being top scorer.

IHF.info: What do you love about Beach Handball? / How does Beach Handball make you feel?

Asun Batista: What I like are the values that Beach Handball has transmitted to me throughout all these years.

As a pivot I have always had to score goals through the passes of my teammates and that is why I always say that everything I have achieved, in large part, is thanks to them.

And this is what this sport reflects for me; the camaraderie, the responsibility of taking care of each other, the humility that is needed to go far, the sacrifices that we have had to make to travel around and everyone doing this sport simply because of the love we have for Beach Handball – the discipline we have had to learn, the effort to get up from each and every fall, resilience, love and passion for what we do.

They are values that I use today in all areas of my life and thanks to that, I am doing quite well. 

Handball makes me be and feel everything I am, it evades me from any type of problem, it brings me together with completely incredible people, it makes me vent about anything on the field, it is my life and my passion and there is nothing that makes me feel the same as when I'm touching the sand in competition. It makes me feel safe, it makes me feel at home, it makes me enter a mode of determination and competition that is difficult to match.

IHF.info: What are your hopes for the future of Beach Handball and the Olympic Games?

Asun Batista: I really hope that this sport becomes Olympic, it is a dynamic and very spectacular sport that is not like any other, we have Fair Play as our flag, something that is an example for the entire world of how a sport should be cared for and respected.

In that way, making a beautiful show with a clean and healthy rivalry that makes the show cannot be compared. I hope it is clean and one day people who love this sport can dedicate themselves body and soul to it. Then we will see Beach Handball with prepared and dedicated people, doing what they love, being paid and without having to juggle their personal lives to be able to dedicate themselves to it.

IHF.info: What would you say to anyone who has never played or watched Beach Handball and is thinking of getting involved with the sport?

Asun Batista: Beach Handball is something unique, I can’t explain it in words, but just by watching a match, people are already impressed.

Beach Handball is seeing how people do this sport for love, it is pure spectacle, it is fun, it is dynamism, it is seeing how happy people are competing, it is an example of Fair Play that makes the little ones grow up healthy and with the appropriate values to be an extraordinary person in any area of life.

The IHF Beach Handball Showcase is a collaborative effort between the IHF, Paris 2024 Organising Committee for the Olympic and Paralympic Games (COJOP2024), French Handball Federation (FFHB) and International Olympic Committee (IOC).