Kathrine Heindahl has lived her Olympic dream and delivered a medal for herself and her country after Denmark’s 30:25 win over Sweden in Saturday morning’s bronze medal match.
“It’s so special. As a team, we’ve been struggling to reach the Olympic Games and have been working and working to get here.
“When we were small kids, it was all about the Olympic dream because we saw the Danish women’s team were winning gold after gold, so to finally reach it with a team that we believe can fight for medals and to actually do it is crazy after so many years of hard work.”
A big difference
In a 12-year absence since their last Olympic appearance and 20 years since that last gold medal, the magnitude of the occasion was not lost on anyone and it made the crushing semi-final loss to Norway easier to move past in search of a medal.
“We have a lot of experience as a team and we knew that if we weren’t there 100% against Norway, it wouldn’t be enough and we were realistic that it wasn’t enough. That helped us move forward and we know what a bronze medal means, it’s such a big difference between third and fourth place.”
Having taken early control of the contest, Denmark did a brilliant job of controlling their play and their opponents, never allowing Sweden to come within two goals in the combative second half.
“We knew we had to empty the tank and I think that we controlled the match well for almost 60 minutes.
“We played the gameplan totally today. We knew Sweden would want to be aggressive in defence, so we had to play the ball and each other well and I’m really happy about how we delivered.”
Unprecedented experience
Emotions were high, at both ends of the spectrum, in the mixed zone following the match. Heindahl’s participation was in some doubt after an injury at December’s World Championship, but she fought her way back to full fitness in plenty of time for these games and she made the most of every moment.
“In some ways, you try to prepare for the Olympics and what it is but this scene is completely different. You see the French fans, the Danes, all of Europe come here to fill arenas. We’ve never even tried something like this before, we played our first game of the championship against Slovenia at 9 in the morning and it was full.
“So I want to thank everyone who helped us to live our dream, to spot all the Danish flags in the crowd and that the French people succeed in filling an arena like this is magical.”