Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar: Much more than “the daughter of”

EHF / Björn Pazen

12 January 2024, 17:00

On sand, she won all the trophies you can win in handball. Twice EHF EURO champion, once World Champion and once World Games winner – for years Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar and the German Beach Handball national team have been undefeated at all major tournaments. At only 23 years old, Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar has a huge medal collection – and an advantage compared to her famous father Stefan Kretzschmar.

“I always joke with him, saying: hey Papa, how often have you won gold medals?”. In his extraordinary career, Stefan Kretzschmar has never won a title with the national team. He was a silver medalist at the Olympic Games, European and World Championships – and was injured when his team won EHF EURO gold in 2004.

But Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar is not only successful on sand, but also in indoor handball, like the German goalkeeper Katharina Filter, who is number one in both teams. After her start at Magdeburg, Kretzschmar played for HC Leipzig, then moved to Neckarsulm and transferred to HSG Bensheim/Auerbach in 2022. With this club, she followed in the footsteps of her famous EHF Champions League winning father this season, having her debut in the EHF club competitions.

HSG Bensheim/Auerbach qualified for the German Cup final. Facing German champions SG BBM Bietigheim there, they knew before that they made club history, as the finalists had a guaranteed spot in the EHF European League. “We were so happy and proud to make it to the EHF European League, maybe we were even happier than Bietigheim after winning the cup,” says Kretzschmar, who had missed this cup final due to a knee injury.

“We now feel this euphoria in the city and the region, because for all of us it is something very, very special to play on the international stage. This is all new land for us.” HSG Bensheim/Auerbach eagerly awaited the draw event – and then Bensheim was placed in an all-German duel against VfL Oldenburg in the second qualification round. “We were so disappointed. We thought that if we lost this, it would be the worst and shortest ever European experience we could have, not even leaving our country. We had dreamt of cool clubs and cities like Malaga or Reykjavik, which were in the pot,” says Kretzschmar.

Finally, Bensheim/Auerbach beat their domestic rivals twice – and the European Cup debutants had made it to the group phase, knowing that they would have an extended journey through Europe with at least six more matches. Last Sunday, Kretzschmar and her team finally had their first “real” international match, playing at the EHF European League 2020/2021 winners Neptunes de Nantes in France.

“Though the result was anything but funny, I enjoyed this match. I had goosebumps when we were entering the sold-out arena, facing a team that has a squad for the EHF Champions League. I will definitely remember this match all my life,” says Kretzschmar. For her, the 27:39 defeat was “too high for sure”, but she added: “Nobody expected us debutants and underdogs to win at Nantes.”

On Saturday, the next milestone is ahead for Bensheim/Auerbach: their first ever home match against an international team, hosting the Romanian side CS Gloria 2018 BN in the second round. “Unfortunately, we cannot play our home matches in our regular arena, we play one hour away at Elsenfeld, but I hope many of our fans will travel that way to support us,” says Kretzschmar.

As usual, Stefan Kretzschmar will try to watch the match on the internet – as the sports director of Füchse Berlin, TV expert for the streaming platform Dyn and currently official ambassador of Men’s EHF EURO 2024 venue in Berlin, he normally does not have the time to come to his daughter’s matches. Like in May, when almost at the same time Füchse Berlin won the EHF European League final in Flensburg and Germany became the EHF EURO champions with Lucie-Marie as their team captain.

Like her father, she always has a lucky charm with her at every match: Stefan has a stone, Lucie-Marie always has the shirt of her younger brother Elvis, under her warm-up clothes. “I always want to have Elvis with me,” Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar explains. Elvis plays handball in the youth team of Stefan’s former club SC Magdeburg – and some months ago was selected for the German youth national team for the first time. “It is not easy for us with this last name, but both of us can manage it,” Lucie-Marie says.

But before the match with CS Gloria 2018 BN, there will be a special moment for her on Friday night. At 19:30 CET, the premiere of the documentary “Kretzsche – the handball punk” takes place on the EHF Home of Handball YouTube channel. Following the premiere, in Germany the documentary will be exclusively available on the sports streaming platform DYN while fans worldwide can enjoy it on YouTube as well as on EHFTV.

“We had the chance to watch the almost final version of this documentary with the whole family on Christmas. We love it, it is great. Finally, the moment has come to share this with friends. I am sure this is a documentary for everybody: people who know Stefan and his story quite well will see many new things, and others will see that there is a lot more beyond handball. Definitely, the documentary is anything but boring. Just watch it.”

If you want to see what Lucie-Marie and Elvis Kretzschmar say about their father, don’t miss it.