B dag - Håndbold er for piger der ikke vil danse
Det kan godt være en del at læse igen igennem, men der er et fantastisk indlæg i vores forum fra en Brasiliansk pige der fortæller hvorfor hun stoppede med at spille håndbold, og om hvordan der ses på håndboldsporten i Brasilien og de vilkår den har, here goes: (Hele snakken samt en masse billeder og andet godt kan ses HER)
It's nice that you appreciated it. Ill try to explain the brazilian context and why all girls were so happy to win.
Our country is centered in male soccer. All medias - TV, newspaper, etc, are about soccer. We have some volleyball fans and basketball fans, but they're rarely mentioned. All other sports, including Judo (we are the best in the world) and Gymnastics, are only mentioned in the olympics. Our gymnastics high level athletes get 1500 reais a month - that's 500 euros a month, to survive. They demand that you keep your level. We hardly have big brands that sponsor athleths that are not from soccer. CORREIOS, that sign the brazilian team, are a public enterprise. Before, it was PETROBRÁS, that also belongs to the state.
I played handball as a goalkeeper from 9 years old to 15 years old. Handball is the option for girls that don't want to dance. When I was 14 years old I was considered the best goalkeeper from my state. I k**f up my leg and didn't play the national championship, but I was there in case my substitute got hurt too. We won with great level players that I'll mention soon enough.
Handball is valued in private junior/high schools in Brazil. Those are the best schools. So some girls in public schools started playing high level to try some scholarships, even though they're very rare. After high school, Brazil's best universities are public and they're really hard to enter - for medicine it can be 300 candidates for one spot. You have try a super hard exam to go in... And people that come from private high schools go better in this exam.
So when you're preparing for the public schools exams, most parents ask youngters to stop with sports. Public universities are free and great, but they do not have sports. If you're poor and you can not have preparatory classes to get in a public university, nor the money to pay a private one, you're sorta screwed.
That's when our 5 or 6 private universities that have handball come in (Metodista, for exemple). They offer the basic to our athletes - a room, food, and a superior degree. In my case, when I was 16, my parents told me to stop handball and study for entering a public university, being an "adult". This happens a lot with great players, that were even better than the girls in the national team. They simply stop. Sport clubs here always said that handball was a "kids game". When I was 18 I tried to convince my city club to have a handball team - I had 4 or 5 girls in my city that already been in the national team. Danielle Farias, an example, one of the best goalkeepers in the Sheerbrook junior in Canada. They always said no.
So I kept on with my adult life. I'm 21years old and entering a master's degree. I'm living in France now for my 1st year of master. I wouldn't be as good as Pessoa or Arenhardt, because I stopped growing while I was 1,73...
But, there are high level girls in Brazil that are playing just for food or home and their passion.Larissa Araujo is an example: (Se videoen med hende nederst)
I can also think of Maria Paula Holtz Macedo, not even masculine goalkeepers could keep up with her. They're both 92.
When I played national competitions for my school or my state, we had to pay for our own (parents) pocket. I've got used to not taking showers for 2 days because we didn't have water in the bathrooms. We slept in schools that let us stay sleeping in their classrooms. I also got used to not even having warm water to shower, even if most of the brazilian players come from the south (including me), where it snows and it's colds.
I hope I can explain this. You can ask me whatever you want about handball in Brazil