Respect Your Talent players celebrate Olympic medals

Thomas Arnoldsen — Denmark

After being one of the key players for Aalborg in the EHF Champions League 2023/24 and especially at the EHF FINAL4 2024, Thomas Arnoldsen continued his form at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. The 22-year-old centre back scored 19 goals in Denmark’s perfect run through the competition all the way to their second Olympic gold, and was the side’s fifth top scorer overall, notching up almost three hours on court.

In early stages of the Olympic tournament, he was higher up the scorer list for Denmark, with the more established stars taking on their key roles as the competition progressed — and Arnoldsen delivering in his as an important player helping the side get to those late stages.

Sarah Bouktit — France

Sharing her position mainly with Pauletta Foppa, well-known as one of the best line players in the world, Bouktit has the job of coming onto court when needed and keeping the level of the game high with her performance. With some rotation among the France line-up, 21-year-old Bouktit made the bill for five of the eight games the side played at Paris 2024. When on court, Bouktit has the responsibility of delivering in France’s trademark stellar defence as well as in attack. In just over 54 minutes of playing time, she contributed one goal.

Javier Rodriguez — Spain

Rounding out the trio of Paris 2024 medallists is another line player: Javier Rodriguez. Rodriguez was part of Spain’s line-up for seven of their eight games at Paris 2024, scoring 11 goals and playing more than three hours to contribute to Spain’s fifth Olympic bronze medal.

Nina Koppang — Sweden

RYT players not only collectively experienced the full trio of medals at Paris 2024, but the simultaneous triumph and disappointment of fourth place, which Nina Koppang did with Sweden. Stepping up to a big responsibility alongside the more established stalwarts in the Sweden team, the 22-year-old right back was Sweden’s third top scorer as 12^th in the competition overall, with 27 goals and over four and a half hours on court in Paris and Lille. In Sweden’s line-up, Koppang ranked only behind captain Jamina Roberts and the top scorer overall at Paris 2024, Nathalie Hagman.

Dominik Kuzmanovic — Croatia

Finishing the Paris 2024 competition in joint-fourth in terms of save rate is already a feat for 22-year-old Dominik Kuzmanovic. But more notably, he had the joint-fourth highest number of saves in the competition overall, despite playing fewer games than all those who ranked above him.

Looking at goalkeepers with the same number of matches played — five, as Croatia exited the competition at the end of the preliminary round — Kuzmanovic stopped 25 more shots than his nearest competitor. Aside from France’s Vincent Gerard, who was in France’s line-up for six matches, the others who beat Kuzmanovic’s number of saves played eight games and celebrated medals: Gonzalo Perez de Vargas for Spain and Andreas Wolff for Germany. Considering the calibre of company Kuzmanovic is keeping here, the future between Croatia’s posts looks extremely bright.

Petra Simon — Hungary

The youngest on the list of RYT players who competed at Paris 2024, 19-year-old Petra Simon had an excellent tournament. Simon played over two hours in Hungary’s six games, before they were knocked out by Sweden in an overtime quarter-final, scoring 16 goals and delivering five assists from her position as centre back.

Bence Imre — Hungary

The Hungary men returned to the Olympic Games after missing the last two editions, marking the longest wait of any of the men’s sides that contested Paris 2024. Right wing Bence Imre was not only an important player in that historic qualification but had a great campaign at the Olympic Games. The 21-year-old netted 26 goals in the four games he played in Paris, and was on court for the majority of those matches.

Imre is now set for the next big step in his career, as he has joined THW Kiel for the 2024/25 season — his first move outside his native Hungary.

Valentina Klemencic — Slovenia

The Hungary men ended a long wait to return to the Olympic Games, but for the Slovenia women, qualifying for Paris 2024 was an even bigger milestone, as it represented the team’s first ever Games. At 22, Valentina Klemencic has already been part of the Slovenia team for many years, first playing the senior World Championship back in 2019 — the same year she joined the RYT programme.

At Paris 2024, Slovenia did not make it out of the preliminary round. Klemencic contributed five goals to their campaign and played just under 90 minutes on the Olympic court.

Photos: IHF/kolektiff images