Frank Løke (born 6 February 1980) is a Norwegian endurance athlete, TV personality and former

handball Handball (also known as team handball, European handball or Olympic handball) is a team sport in which two teams of seven players each (six outcourt players and a goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of throwing it into the g ...

player. Regarded as one of the best line players of his era, Løke played for clubs in Norway, Germany, Denmark, Croatia and Switzerland during his career. He was capped 186 times and scored 646 goals for the Norwegian national team, and was voted best pivot at the

2008 European Men's Handball Championship The 2008 EHF European Men's Handball Championship (8th tournament) was held in Norway from 17 to 27 January, in the cities of Bergen, Drammen, Lillehammer, Stavanger and Trondheim. Denmark men's national handball team, Denmark won the tournament ...

."Norway"
– ''European Handbal Federation (2008)'' (Retrieved on 1 February 2008) Løke represented Norway at every

World Championship A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

and European Championship between 2005 and 2011.

Post-playing career

Following his retirement from handball, Løke has competed in several Norwegian reality TV-shows. He competed in the Norwegian celebrity format version of '' The Farm'' in 2017 and ''Skal vi danse?'' in 2018. Løke won the reality competition ''71° nord – Team'' together with partner Rikke Isaksen in 2023. Løke has participated in multiple

ultramarathon An ultramarathon, also called ultra distance or ultra running, is any footrace longer than the traditional marathon length of . Various distances are raced competitively, from the shortest common ultramarathon of to over . 50k and 100k are bot ...

, ultra-distance cycling,

triathlon A triathlon is an endurance multisport race consisting of Swimming (sport), swimming, Cycle sport, cycling, and running over various distances. Triathletes compete for fastest overall completion time, racing each segment sequentially with the t ...

and

quadrathlon A quadrathlon (or ''quadriathlon'', tetrathlon) is an endurance sports event composed of four individual disciplines. All four disciplines are completed in succession and the lowest overall time decides the winner. The World Quadrathlon Federation ...

competitions, including the Norseman Triathlon and the Östhammar Adventure Race. Løke climbed

Mount Everest Mount Everest (; Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border runs across its summit point. Its elevation (snow heig ...

in 2021 and 2024, and K2 in 2022, becoming the third Norwegian to reach the latter's

summit A summit is a point on a surface that is higher in elevation than all points immediately adjacent to it. The topography, topographic terms acme, apex, peak (mountain peak), and zenith are synonymous. The term (mountain top) is generally used ...

Personal life

Løke's younger sister, Heidi, is also a handball player, having won the Olympic gold medal, two World Championships and four European Championships with the Norwegian national team.

References

1980 births Norwegian expatriate handball players Living people Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Switzerland Norwegian male handball players RK Zagreb players Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Croatia Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Norwegian expatriate handball players in Germany {{Norway-handball-bio-stub