“A true fighter, on and off the court. An example of passion and devotion. She made a mark which cannot be erased.”

At only 1.69m, Iryna Glibko had a cannon of an arm and a fantastic shot. She started handball by accident, having been offered a chance when she was only eight years old, going to a gym to see rhythmic gymnastics and badminton.

But then, the passion for handball was impossible to stop. Born in Odessa in 1990, where the handball clubs are scarce, she had to move aged only 17 in Lviv, in the other part of Ukraine, to continue her passion.

Then, Glibko made the next step, going to neighbouring Romania, where she made her mark at Danubius Galați, CSM București, HCM Roman and SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea, becoming one of the most consistent players in the last decade, with over 1,000 goals scored in the 11 seasons she played.

She was also the top scorer of the Romanian league in 2013 and 2018, the best foreign player of the competition in 2018 and 2023, making also the Ukrainian national team, where she featured at two editions of the EHF EURO, in 2014 and 2016.

However, she found a place in Romania, where she spent her last 12 years, in smaller cities than Odessa – with the exception of Bucharest – but settling well and being one of the fan favourites wherever she played.

“I was born in a big city, Odessa, in Ukraine, therefore when I came to Vâlcea, which is a smaller,quiet town, I thought I would get bored and will not adapt as quickly as it would have been needed. Listen, I would have never thought I would spend six or seven years here, I was used to life flowing in a more alert rhythm,” said Glibko in 2023.

However, the former Ukrainian centre back first found herself with serious health issues in 2020. She overcame them, came back on the court and delivered a fantastic season, including for the national team.

She scored six goals in the 66:24 aggregate win against Luxembourg in the European Qualifiers for the 2023 IHF Women’s World Championship, helping Ukraine qualify for the first time in 14 years in the world handball flagship competition.

Unfortunately, the health issues returned for Glibko, who needed to undergo treatment once again and missed her debut in the world handball flagship competition. In fact, Glibko never took the court again, despite constantly training by herself in her club, Vâlcea.

Things took a turn for the worse over the last months, and on Wednesday, 28 August, Glibko’s club announced her untimely passing, when the heart of a true fighter, who made it through thick and thin, stopped beating.

“You’ll always be in our hearts,” was Vâlcea’s message, echoed by thousands of fans, as well as her former teammates, which cancelled the training session scheduled for Wednesday.

The International Handball Federation would also like to express its condolences to the family and friends of Iryna Glibko in this difficult moment.  

Photo credit: Image Plus / SCM Râmnicu Vâlcea