The struggle for a healthy development: The handball world chimes in to help the United States of America

As the United States of America women’s national junior team was preparing for its comeback at the IHF Women’s Junior (U20) World Championship after a 41-year hiatus, their roster was facing a flurry of surprises.

In their first training camp, held in France, the young players met Olivier Krumbholz, the legendary French coach, who became world champion twice, in 2003 and 2017, European champion in 2018 and also secured the gold medal with the France women’s national team at the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020.
 
Then, the USA flew to Hungary, when they held another training camp at the Hungarian National Handball Academy (NEKA), where the last winners of the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship and the IHF Women’s Youth World Championship were created.

Those experiences were definitely priceless for the USA team, the definition of a work in progress, trying to improve handball in the country before the Olympic Games Los Angeles 2028, with an intermediary objective for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. 

One year ago, in July 2021, the USATH selected Hungarian coach Edina Borsos for the events leading up to and, if qualified, through the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, France. 

It was a big coup for women’s handball in the United States, as Borsos had a superb background in the sport, serving as the General Manager of the France women’s teams for 15 years, on top of her coaching experience in several clubs in Hungary.

“The challenge is huge, because we basically had a white canvas in front of us and we just need to add the proper pieces for everything to work out. Handball is developing in the United States and we are just trying to help the sport grow,” says Borsos.

The United States have qualified just for the third time for an IHF Women’s Junior World Championship, after finishing 12th in 1979 and 11th in 1981. Therefore, the 41-year wait to take part in the tournament is over, but the other one, for the first win in the competition, is still pending.

Drawn against reigning champions Hungary in Group H was not ideal, as the difference is huge. USA lost that game 5:4, as well as the other four matches, against Egypt and Poland in the preliminary round, and against Austria and Kazakhstan in the President’s Cup group phase.

While the match against Austria prompted a goalless second half for the USA, the one against Kazakhstan was more competitive. Edina Borsos’ side took the Asian side at face value, even held the lead throughout the first 40 minutes, but eventually lost by only two goals, 30:32.

This was the first-ever 30-goal outing for the United States at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship, a sign that things are improving, despite the previous heavy losses against European teams.

In fact, the performance against Kazakhstan makes almost half of the total number of goals scored by the USA at Slovenia 2022 – 66 – 28 less than Chile and 34 less than Mexico, on the last three places of the scoring standings.

“While the results are not the best for us, we admit that this is a steep learning curve. We are humble, this has been a humble experience for us, being here in Slovenia at the World Championship, but we are happy to take part in this tournament. The girls are happy, we are all talking about the games and trying to help handball in the United States improve,” adds Borsos.

The focus has been clear in the past years for the United States and this is developing the future. The team present at Slovenia 2022 is the youngest in the competition with an average age of 17.6 years. A single player, centre back Ariane Clerc, is 20 years of age, with another four players aged 16, five aged 17 and two of them aged 18.

At this level, experience is key and this is what the United States are trying to improve. Some of their players are already training at European clubs – in Norway, France, Sweden and Germany.

Other are US-based, with Borsos trying to close the gap and develop this side one step at a time, focusing on clear areas of development. This is why the training camps in France and Hungary have a crucial role in improving the team.

However, after five consecutive losses, the USA team will play for the 29-32 Placement Round, with a match against Italy, which will be followed by another one against either India or Mexico.

“We have players who are also trying on other sports in the United States and also took up handball. The key of the project, in my opinion, is the collaboration between different shareholders in world handball. We need that support to improve both on and off the court.

“This is why the help of the International Handball Federation, the Federations from Hungary and France and other countries which have chimed in is invaluable. Because, like I previously had said, building a team from the ground up is very difficult,” concludes Borsos.

As handball was not born in a day, rather being involved in a constant development throughout the years, the United States of America will not become a powerhouse in the sport overnight, maybe not even in a decade.

However, with dedicated persons like Borsos, with the support put in place from all over the world and with a healthy line of development, USA could feature among the top teams in the future.

And it all started here, at Slovenia 2022, when the United States of America made their comeback at the IHF Women’s Junior World Championship after 41 years.