The Spin: Oftedal Dahmke looks back while looking ahead

Oftedal Dahmke bowed out as holder of three of the four major handball titles — the EHF Champions League, the Olympic Games and the EHF EURO. The only one missing from her collection in that moment was the world title, although she had celebrated that three times before and had taken the silver medal at the last World Championship she played, at the end of 2023.

“There were many, many things coming together,” Oftedal Dahmke told the three hosts of The Spin, Victor Tomas, Martin Vilstrup and Bengt Kunkel. “Handball wise, I've been lucky enough to actually do everything that I wanted to do. I feel that's been such a privilege. A few years ago, when I was looking at my next contract, the Olympics lay there in ‘24 — the last ultimate dream that I hadn't managed to at least, like fulfil completely yet with a gold medal. I thought that an additional four years after that felt like too long.”

Oftedal Dahmke emphasises that she feels extremely fortunate about her career, in terms of never dealing with a long-term injury that kept her sidelined, as an example. She enjoyed it every step of the way, but that does not exclude the challenges of being a professional athlete.

“Those things that I maybe thought were harder those got heavier and heavier in a way. And then lastly, I also always felt like I wanted to stop at a point in my career where I still felt like myself on the field.”

Oftedal Dahmke speaks candidly about her life and on-court career, discussing each step of it, as she made her way from Stabæk in Norway to Issy-Paris Hand to Györ, with whom she would win the EHF Champions League three times and become MVP of the EHF FINAL4 2024. Winning the EHF Champions League 2023/24 title was the first milestone in what would be one of the most memorable summers in Oftedal Dahmke’s life, as right after taking the gold medal at the Olympic Games, she and THW Kiel wing Rune Dahmke were married.

“I really feel like this whole summer, in a way, it was a highlight in itself. I knew I was going into all of these different things, and they meant so much in so many different ways,” says Oftedal Dahmke when asked if she could possibly pick a highlight.

“It truly feels euphoric to have the chance to have all of them there and I also think this getting married part and actually doing something that is a little bigger than just sport as well, that is what is the most important.”

Speaking about the Olympic Games and the final in particular, where Oftedal Dahmke won the one title that had eluded her during her illustrious career, the former centre back shared how she felt exactly as she would have hoped ahead of the final and during it, but prior to that, the ghost of the past two Games had followed her through Paris 2024. At both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020, Norway were knocked out in the semi-finals.

“I also tried very much to be at peace with that being the last chance, in the way that if it didn't work, it’s not like it would destroy anything,” says Oftedal Dahmke. “I was very happy also that we, with the national team, for months before, we kind of put down a lot of strategies, like safety nets. For example, me personally, that say, in a final I would start to cry at some point or feel extra emotional during the day, then I knew that we had already planned that different players would take different roles that I normally fulfil.”

But the episode’s focus is not entirely on Oftedal Dahmke’s career and the end of it. Much of the episode concentrates on what she has been up to in the time since hanging up the handball shoes, including her move to Kiel, trying her hand at being an expert on Norwegian TV during the Women’s EHF EURO 2024 and 2025 Men’s World Championship, and joining the Pro Handball USA project as an ambassador.

“The main goal is of course to establish handball in the USA — to make our sport bigger, to get it even more out there, to give more possibilities to basically make the sport grow,” says Oftedal Dahmke. “The ultimate goal is, of course, to manage to create a league over there.

“We want, for the next three years, from ‘26, to put the best European teams onto big stages, and make huge events in the US, so that's basically to have pre-season tournaments in quite cool locations.”

Want to hear more from Oftedal Dahmke? Check out the episode of The Spin featuring Oftedal Dahmke here: