2023-10-27 05:00:00
They are a teacher, nurse, educator, lawyer, DPJ employee, kinesiologist, osteopath, student, mother, and above all members of the national handball team. Against all odds, they qualified for the Pan American Games almost a year ago, largely at their own expense.
• Read also: 2028 Games in Los Angeles: the International Olympic Committee opens its doors to five new sports
• Read also: [PHOTOS] Gymnastics: “Two weeks ago, I mightn’t do anything” – Aurélie Tran
These passionate people are representing Canada with pride this week in Chile, but their wallets will be lighter when they return. Because yes, they have to pay to make the maple leaf shine abroad.
“It’s tiring, because this energy, which we put [pour trouver de l’argent]we don’t put it on our game,” had mentioned to Journal the coach of the Canadian team and the Quebec women’s teams, Nathalie Brochu, in full preparation a few months ago.
Coach Nathalie Brochu speaking to her players during training in January in La Prairie. Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Disadvantage
In Santiago, the maple leaf team competes once morest Brazil and Argentina, “who have millions of dollars in budgets annually and whose players play professionally in Europe,” according to Ms. Brochu.
The latter adds that Uruguay, Paraguay or Puerto Rico, “which are not considered rich countries”, assume the expenses of their athletes.
“When I say that girls here have to pay, people don’t believe me!” says the former national team athlete.
“It’s 100% sure that we feel a disadvantage,” admits 29-year-old Sherbrooke resident Émily Routhier, an employee of the Youth Protection Department who scored two goals in a 23-14 defeat once morest Chile. , Tuesday. There are players from other countries who just have to train, touch balls and play. There are some who are paid to play handball.
This sport, especially practiced in our schools, can count on 30 million followers around the world. In Europe, professional leagues, both women’s and men’s, allow certain players to cash in millions of dollars (see table below).
Meanwhile in Canada, the only professional female player is Maksi Pallas. However, the 20-year-old Albertan who plays in Germany recently had knee surgery and was unable to travel to Chile.
Le Tupperware Squad
Over the years, the national federation has lost financial support from Ottawa, personnel and its training center. Despite this, enthusiasts rolled up their sleeves to achieve small miracles. Women have notably qualified at the last two Pan American Games.
“In 1999, we were four goals away from going to the Sydney Olympic Games,” recalls Ms. Brochu. At the time, the Canadian government had already started making cuts. We had made the headlines; They called us the Tupperware Squad, because we sold Tupperware to raise money.”
“We meet the same standards as excellent athletes in other sports. But we do it without subsidies, without installation, without much. We manage to do the impossible with nothing,” continues the woman whose protégés cannot believe it when she tells them that she received $565 per month to train full time or that her university studies and physiotherapy treatments were paid.
The current team therefore crowdfunded, collected donations and organized a tournament in August in order to reduce its costs.
“With $1,000 here and there, we managed to appease the girls,” assures Ms. Brochu, even if the round trip series last fall with the United States in order to obtain a ticket to Santiago cost around $30,000 to the group.
Alexandra Pivin, from Drummondville, performs in training. Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
An expensive passion
Without including loss of salary, a handball season requires each national player to take out between $5,000 and $10,000 from their pockets.
“Sometimes we go less far for family vacations,” emphasizes Nassima Benhacine, a player from Chambly and mother of a 2-year-old boy. You need a partner who embarks on the adventure, because all the time we spend training, we don’t spend it at home.
“Money doesn’t change the world, except that it helps!” jokes the criminal lawyer.
Quebecer Nassima Benhacine. Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Among the 16 Canadian athletes in Chile, including 11 from Quebec, two are replacements and do not have access to reimbursements (plane, accommodation and food). This is also the case for three of the five guides (trainer, assistant, mental trainer, physiotherapist and video analyst).
“A big difference is that this year, Lululemon is dressing everyone for free. In 2019, we had to pay $1,100 per person for official clothing,” points out Ms. Brochu.
Members of the Canadian handball delegation will share the costs and it will cost approximately $1,400 per person to represent the country at the Pan American Games and hope to qualify for the Olympic Games by winning gold. If the national team finishes second, it will have to go through a second chance tournament.
Finally a glimmer of hope
Canada’s women’s handball team finally feels like it can get its head above water soon.
“We were in a vicious circle where you have no money, therefore no resources,” analyzed Nadia Lefebvre, new executive director of operations at Handball Canada, last week, a position that has been vacant for at least two years.
The former national team player who currently serves as a mental trainer for the Pan American Games has been in her new role for barely two months thanks to a grant, but already, she has established a valuable connection to help restructure the organization.
“We hope to be subsidized in 2025 by Sports Canada,” she explains. […] We are so grateful, there are COC members [Comité olympique canadien] and Sports Canada who want us to come back.”
“They said that the women’s team had succeeded in making handball shine once more internationally,” notes the coach, Nathalie Brochu.
From left to right, top row: Guillaume Gaudet (video analyst), Nathalie Brochu (head coach), Catherine Léger, Myriam Laplante, Émily Routhier, Audrey Marcoux, Myriam Zimmer, Katya Chan, Ireland Wong, Rafaëlle Allard (physiotherapist) , Nadia Lefebvre (mental trainer), Audrey Vanslette (assistant coach). From left to right, bottom row: Rosali Langlois, Laurie Lacasse, Alexandra Pivin, Teodora Bosonea, Vassilia Gagnon, Sabrina Vigneau, Haven Wong, Samantha Koosau, Nassima Benhacine. Photo provided by Catherine Léger
“The means at hand”
According to Ms. Lefebvre, with “the means at hand,” the Canadians were even one victory away from qualifying for the World Championship, losing 17 to 15 once morest Greenland in the final of a Confederation of America competition. North and Caribbean.
All this, without a penny or almost, from the federal government, which nevertheless finances sports that are not in the Olympics, such as bowls, cricket, broomball, water skiing, ringette or bowling.
“It’s difficult and aberrant,” said Émily Routhier, the country’s top scorer with 16 goals in five games at the Pan American Games in Toronto in 2015, at the start of the year. In addition to the mental and physical aspect, we must think to the financial aspect. It’s stressful, because we don’t always have time to manage it.”
Émily Routhier Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Recognition
In recent months, Ms. Brochu managed to obtain excellence status for Quebec players, resulting in a $6,000 scholarship for each. Two other Alberta athletes also received provincial assistance.
Despite this, women, who train between 15 hours and 20 hours per week in addition to working full time, studying or having a family, must pay to represent Canada.
“We would like the government to support the elite at this level,” Nassima Benhacine, a member of the national team since 2008, said in January. “I have a mortgage to pay, caring for a child, etc.”
The Canadian women’s handball team upon its arrival in Chile for the Pan American Games in Santiago. Photo provided by Nathalie Brochu
“People of heart”
Fortunately, Ms. Brochu was able to surround herself with “good-hearted and competent people”. In Chile, she is assisted by Audrey Vanslette, a former international whose mother already played for Canada, by physiotherapist Raphaëlle Allard and video analyst Guillaume Gaudet.
“When people ask me how much it costs me, I answer that I don’t know and I don’t want to know!”, exclaims with a laugh the special education teacher at Louis-Cyr secondary school in Napierville .
It now remains to convince the authorities that coaches also need a financial boost, even if they have another full-time job.
Players of the national handball team training with girls from the Quebec team, in January, in La Prairie. Photo Pierre-Paul Poulin
Did you know that…?
Handball emerged in Scandinavian countries and Germany at the end of the 19e century.
The men’s discipline made its entry into the Berlin Olympics in 1936 and argued in the open air, on the lawnwith 11 players.
Handball returns to the Helsinki Olympics in 1952 as a demonstration sport.
It returned to the 1972 Munich Games and was presented in gymnasiumwith seven players per team.
The first women’s Olympic competition takes place in Montreal Games in 1976.
At the Olympics, 12 pays are represented in both men and women.
A match consists of two halves of 30 min.
In the world, 30 million people enjoy handball (indoor, beach, mini and wheelchair).
It is considered by many to be a team ball sport. the fastest, combining contacts, agility and explosiveness. The referees can even sanction when the rhythm is passive.
Russia (Soviet Union and Unified Team) holds the record for seven Olympic gold medals, all genres combined. Among women, she has triumphed seven times at the World Championship.
The female training of Denmark won Olympic gold in 1996, 2000 and 2004. The Danes are world champions, imitated by the Norwegians.
France is the reigning Olympic queen, both for men and women. His men’s team has dominated six times at the World Cup.
THE best professional leagues male and female are located in Spain, Germany, France, Hungary, Denmark, Norway and Russia.
See in photos the highest paid handball athletes on the planet:
Nikola Karabatic, French, Paris Saint-Germain/France, $2.6 million
Photo AFP
Luka Karabatic, French, Paris Saint-Germain/France, $2.2 million
AFP
Sander Sagosen, Norwegian, THW Kiel/Germany, $2.2 million
AFP
Mikkel Hansen, Dane, Aalborg Handball/Denmark, $1.7M
AFP
Ferran Sole, Spaniard, Paris Saint-Germain/France, $1.7M
AFP
Melvyn Richardson, French, FC Barcelona/Spain, $1.5M
AFP
Dika Mem, French, FC Barcelona/Spain, $1.5M
AFP
Niclas Ekberg, Swede, THW Kiel/Germany, $1.5M
AFP
Kauldi Odriozola, Spaniard, HBC Nantes/France, $1.5M
AFP
Yanis Lenne, French, Montpellier Handball/France, $1.5 million
AFP
*Salary in 2023 in Canadian dollars
Sources: paris2024.org, International Handball Federation, Olympic.ca, Handball Canada, statista.com and sportpayouts.com
1698410616
#Handball #players #pay #represent #Canada #Pan #American #Games
