Germany Beach Handball international Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar has won the prestigious International World Games Association (IWGA) World Games Athlete of the Month award for June 2024.

Kretzschmar took home the award which recognises outstanding athletes in the sporting disciplines of the global sporting event, The World Games.

In June, Kretzschmar helped her Germany team win the 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Pingtan, China and with it, they became just the third nation in men’s or women’s championship history to win back-to-back titles, after their 2022 success in Greece.

Kretzschmar was also voted into the All-star Team at China 2024 as best defender, with the world championship title added to their 2023 European title and 2022 The World Games title.

“I feel really honoured about this individual award, especially after this hard tournament (China 2024) but I feel happier that Beach Handball is gaining popularity,” explained Kretzschmar to IHF.info.

“The fact that I am able to be the IWGA’s ‘Athlete of the Month’ as a Beach Handball player – as a female Beach Handball player – shows me that we are on the right path with our sport.”

The title for Germany at China 2024 saw Kretzschmar and her side qualify directly through to The World Games 2025 which will be held in Chengdu, China next year.

“We are really happy that we are qualified for Chengdu 2025 because the qualification process was quite hard and we already qualified for the next edition – Karlsruhe 2029 – as hosts,” said Kretzschmar, who has also been named as one of the athletes participating in the IHF Beach Handball Showcase which will take place on the sidelines of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games at the end of this month.

“We are excited for this path that is in front of us, ahead of us. Pingtan (for China 2024) was already a nice adventure, a pretty venue, but the Chinese super-city of Chengdu will be next level and will show us the real Chinese lifestyle. We are all excited about what is coming next year.”

As The World Games Athlete of the Month, Kretzschmar will receive a diploma and a branded gift. Her award comes exactly four years after the USA Beach Handball player Ebiye Jeremy Udo-Udoma won the same award in June 2020.

Kretzschmar will celebrate her 24th birthday on 7 August, the same date which marks exactly one year to go until Chengdu 2025 gets underway (7 to 17 August 2025).

The IHF would like to congratulate Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar on the award and thank her for her continued support of Beach Handball worldwide

For more info about the award and more quotes from Kretzschmar, visit here.
 
About the International World Games Association and The World Games

The International World Games Association (IWGA) is a non-profit-making international sports organisation recognised and supported by the International Olympic Committee.

The IWGA comprises 40 International Member Sports Federations. It administers and promotes The World Games (TWG), a multi-sport event held every four years that features around 35 sports on its programme. The next edition of TWG will be in Chengdu (CHN) from 7-17 August 2025. 5,000 participants from more than 100 countries are expected to take part in this 12th edition. The latest Games were hosted by Birmingham, Alabama (USA).