12.10.2012, 11:10
BLOG: Starting a brand new exciting chapter in my life

The British Olympian Holly Lam-Moores hopes she and her Viborg´s team mates will have something to scream and cheer about on the bus ride home.

BLOG: Starting a brand new exciting chapter in my life

The new season of the Women´s EHF Champions League throws-off on Saturday and the three times winners from Viborg will travel to Germany to meet Thüringer HC. The opening match on Sunday (15:00 hrs local time) will be a big debut for the new British left winger of the Danish side Holly Lam-Moores.

Here, in the first of her blogs for ehfCL.com, Holly gives us her views not only on Sunday´s game, but recalls to a great Olympic experience and emphasizes the great impact of playing in the top European club competition on her career:

First of all, back to London. Our aim was to make sure that we, the Great Britain handball team would be the best prepared team at the London Olympic Games. Nothing could have prepared us completely for what we experienced this summer. It was breathtaking, overwhelming, absolutely amazing, the greatest experience of my life.

We had prepared for six years to go to this one event, the greatest show on earth. An Olympic Games in London. A British Handball team had never been to an Olympic Games before, we were the first and what an honour it was to be a part of the very first team to do so. We knew it would be tough and it was...

We lost all of our matches, but I haven't walked away from London disappointed about the results. I am proud. The Olympics are not just about medals, we have inspired thousands and thousands of people of all ages to take up a sport that is pretty much unknown in the UK. We inspired a generation. 10 years ago the Russians, Danes, Norwegians most of the teams at the Olympics were still competing for medals in all major tournaments and we didn't even exist, so for us to perform as we did at the Olympic Games was an amazing achievement.

The Olympics has not only inspired others it has also inspired and opened more doors for me. It has inspired me to better myself. The Olympics has given me the opportunity to now be a part of one of the best club teams in the world, Viborg HK. The Olympic Games has only been the beginning for me.

I really hope that we can capitalize on the big buzz around handball at the Olympics and make it a popular sport in the UK just like it is here in Denmark where I am playing now. I know that some of my British team mates are working hard in the UK to deliver a handball legacy, I really believe that our sport has something to offer back home.

As soon as the Olympics were over I flew straight to Denmark to get started with my new club Viborg HK. There wasn't much time to be sad about the Olympics being over because I have started a brand new exciting chapter in my life. We have started the top Danish league amazingly and not lost a game yet after the first 6 matches. We have also qualified for the Champions League which I have only ever dreamed of having a chance to play in.

Last week I was able to go home back to England as the British team didn't have a training camp during international week. I surprised my mother for her birthday and got the chance to go into a local school and teach some of the students how to play handball. It's really nice when the students get stuck into handball and enjoy it as much as I do!

Life in Viborg is great, my teammates are really social so there is normally always something to do outside of training which is always good to give your mind a rest as the matches and training are very intense and require a lot of focus and hard work. Playing and training at such a high level means I'm thrown in at the deep end and constantly challenged. A perfect combination to improve. We had a really tough match on Wednesday against rivals FC Midtjylland coming away with a draw at 26:26.

We were unlucky not to win the game but that's just handball. It was great preparation for us leading us in to this weekends match against Thüringer, our first match in the Champions League campaign. We start our long bus journey down to Germany on Friday and I really hope we have something to scream and cheer about on the bus ride home on Sunday!

Photo: Henrik Wolff

Follow Holly´s debut in the Women´s EHF Champions League and all other matches of Round 1 live on ehfTV.com powered by LAOLA1.tv

TEXT: Holly Lam-Moores, Viborg´s player