BIOGRAPHY
Heidi Løke’s career is still not over, but the Norwegian has already achieved all that most players would wish for - Olympic, world and European gold, and several EHF Champions League titles.
But white Løke has cemented her position as one of the greats of the sport, she was a late bloomer. She began playing handball aged 10, but it was not until she was 18 that she realised she might be able to take the sport more seriously. Her development took place at Larvik and then Gjerpen, and she made her first appearance for the national team aged 24 - although she would not play again for Norway until two years later.
Løke moved to Denmark in this period to play for Aalborg, while also pregnant with her first child. She came back quickly to the sport after giving birth, and then came back home to Norway for her second stint with Larvik. It was at this point that Løke’s career really took off; she won her first EHF EURO title in 2008, starting a string of international medals, and she left Larvik in 2011 with her first EHF Champions League title. She was to win another three during six seasons in Hungary with Györi Audi ETO KC, and a fifth with Vipers Kristiansand in 2021.
In the interim period, Løke racked up 226 appearances with the national team including 801 goals scored, culminating in a fourth EHF EURO title in 2020. She was named All-star line player at the EHF EURO in 2010, 2012, and 2014; at the IHF Women’s World Championship in 2011 and 2015; and at the 2012 and 2016 Olympic Games. She was also named IHF World Player of the Year in 2011, the same year she was top scorer of the Champions League with 99 goals.
Løke returned to Larvik at the start of the 2022/23 season and continues to play handball there at the age of 41.
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