BIOGRAPHY
After discovering her passion for handball at a young age, Hungarian goalkeeper Katalin Palinger became one of the most prominent figures in the sport in the early 2000s. With the help of her mentors Kálmán Róth and Miklós Takács, Palinger quickly turned out to be an important asset for both her national team and her club teams.
She was only 16 years old when she made her debut in the Hungarian first league and two years later the talented young player welcomed a new opportunity - being part of the national team. This turned out to be the first step of an outstanding international career. At the EHF EURO in 1998, Palinger had to fill in the shoes of her more experienced teammate Andrea Farkas who suffered a mild injury, and rose up to the occasion to lead Hungary towards a bronze medal. She would win two more European Championship medals in the following years: gold in 2000 and bronze again in 2004 in front of the home crowd.
Palinger took part in more than 250 official matches for Hungary, during which she managed to conquer even more medals: one silver (2003) and one bronze medal (2005) at the World Championships, as well as silver at the Olympic Games in Sydney in 2000.
Although Palinger’s career includes only medals won with the national team, her club performance is nothing short of impressive. She has been part of some of the biggest European handball clubs, including RK Krim Mercator Ljubljana (Slovenia) and Hungarian club Györi Audi ETO KC, where she also ended her activity as a player, but she would later remain in the handball world working for the Hungarian Handball Federation.
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