Heidi Løke (born 12 December 1982) is a Norwegian handball player for Larvik HK and the

Norwegian national team Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe * Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *The Norwegian language, including ...

. Among her achievements as club player are national championships, a silver medal in the

EHF Women's Cup Winners' Cup The Women's EHF Cup Winners' Cup was the official competition for women's handball clubs of Europe that won their national cup, and took place every year from 1976 to 2016 (until 1993 organized by IHF instead of EHF). From the 2016–17 season, t ...

, and winner of the

EHF Women's Champions League The Women's EHF Champions League is the competition for the top women's handball clubs in Europe, organised annually by the European Handball Federation (EHF). It is the most prestigious tournament for clubs, with the champions of Europe's top n ...

several times.

Career

Club career

Løke was born in

Tønsberg Tønsberg , historically Tunsberg, is a city and municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, eastern Norway, located around south-southwest of Oslo on the western coast of the Oslofjord near its mouth onto the Skagerrak. The administrative c ...

and grew up in

Sandefjord Sandefjord () is a city and the most populous municipality in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The municipality of Sandefjord was established on 1 January 1838. The municipality of Sandar was merged into Sandefjord on 1 January 1969. On 1 ...

where she started to play handball at the age of ten. She played for Runar,

Larvik Larvik () is a town and municipality in Vestfold in Vestfold og Telemark county, Norway. The administrative centre of the municipality is the city of Larvik. The municipality of Larvik has about 46,364 inhabitants. The municipality has a 110&nbs ...

Gjerpen Gjerpen is a former township which is now part of the municipality of Skien, in Telemark county, Norway. Location The parish of Gjerpen was established as a municipality January 1, 1838 (see formannskapsdistrikt). According to the 1835 census t ...

and Aalborg DH before she again played for Larvik between 2008 and 2011. She was top scorer in the Norwegian League in the 2008/2009 and 2009/2010 seasons, and was selected Player of the Year in the league both in 2008/2009 and in 2009/2010. Her club won gold medals in both the League and the Cup in 2008/2009, and again in 2009/2010. With Larvik she reached the final in the

in 2008/2009, winning the silver medal. Her club reached the semifinal in the

in 2009/2010. On 29 November 2010 it was rumored that she would sign with top Hungarian team Győri Audi ETO KC, but Løke refused to comment on the speculations until the forthcoming European Championship were over. Few weeks later, on 31 December 2010, it was announced that Løke had agreed a two-years contract with

Győr Győr ( , ; german: Raab, links=no; names in other languages) is the main city of northwest Hungary, the capital of Győr-Moson-Sopron County and Western Transdanubia region, and – halfway between Budapest and Vienna – situated on one of t ...

and would join her new club after the ongoing season was finished. As Larvik's general manager Bjørn-Gunnar Bruun Hansen revealed, they were in negotiation talks with Løke for a while, but the excellent line player got an offer they simply could not match. Shortly after her signing with Györ, Larvik's head coach Karl Erik Bøhn was dismissed from his job, due to his role in the events. On 1 March 2012 Løke was given the

IHF World Player of the Year The IHF World Player of the Year is a handball award given annually to the player who is considered to have performed the best in the previous season, both at club and international competitions. It is awarded based on votes from experts, media ...

award in recognition of her performances throughout 2011 both on club and international level.

International career

Løke made her debut in the Norwegian national team on 7 April 2006 against

Hungary Hungary ( hu, Magyarország ) is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning of the Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croa ...

. She participated on the Norwegian team that won gold medals at the

2008 European Women's Handball Championship The 2008 EHF European Women's Handball Championship was held in the Republic of Macedonia from 2–14 December, it was won by Norway women's national handball team, Norway after beating Spain women's national handball team, Spain 34–21 in the ...

in Macedonia. She won a bronze medal with the Norwegian team at the

2009 World Women's Handball Championship The 2009 World Women's Handball Championship was the 19th edition, second to take place outside Europe, of the international championship tournament in women's team sport handball that is governed by the International Handball Federation (IHF). ...

in Beijing. At the

2010 European Women's Handball Championship The 2010 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Denmark and Norway from 7–19 December. It was the first European Championship hosted by two countries. Norway won their overall 5th gold medal, when they defeated first time finalist ...

she won a gold medal with the Norwegian team, and was selected into the All-Star team as best pivot (line player) of the tournament. The next year, at the World Championship, she repeated this success, collecting both the gold medal and earning a place in the All-Star team.

Personal

Heidi is not the only professional handballer in the Løke family. Her older brother,

Frank Løke Frank Løke (born 6 February 1980) is a Norwegian endurance athlete, TV personality and former handball player. Regarded as one of the best line players of his era, Løke played for clubs in Norway, Germany, Denmark, Croatia and Switzerland durin ...

was also a former international handballer as well as a player for the

. Her sister, Lise Løke is a player for

Eliteserien Eliteserien () is a Norwegian professional league for association football clubs. At the top of the Norwegian football league system, it is the country's primary football competition. Contested by 16 clubs, it operates on a system of promotio ...

team

Storhamar HE Storhamar Håndball Elite is the women's handball team of the Norwegian multi-sports club Storhamar IL based in Hamar. The team plays in Eliteserien, the top division in the country, since its promotion in 2016. They are currently competing in the ...

. She had a relationship with her former coach

Leif Gautestad Leif is a male given name of Scandinavian origin. It is derived from the Old Norse name ''Leifr'' ( nominative case), meaning "heir", "descendant". Use in the Nordic countries Spelling and prevalence Across the Nordic countries, the most c ...

, with whom she had a son, Alexander, born in 2007. The couple separated in 2010. Former partner of the now deceased handball coach Karl Erik Bøhn. Gave birth to her second son, Oscar on 30 June 2017, with new boyfriend Bjørn Vestrum Olsson. She was back in training six days later, and attended her first handball training for her new club

only 25 days after she gave birth. Her third son, Casper was born on 23 April 2022 from partner Stian Bodin Sundal.

Achievements

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, ...

: **''Winner'': 2011, 2015 **''Silver Medalist'': 2017 **''Bronze Medalist'': 2009 * European Championship: **''Winner'': 2008, 2010, 2014, 2020 **''Silver Medalist'': 2012 *

Summer Olympics The Summer Olympic Games (french: link=no, Jeux olympiques d'été), also known as the Games of the Olympiad, and often referred to as the Summer Olympics, is a major international multi-sport event normally held once every four years. The ina ...

: **''Winner'': 2012 **''Bronze Medalist'': 2016 *

EHF Champions League The Men's EHF Champions League is the most important club handball competition for men's teams in Europe and involves the leading teams from the top European nations. The competition is organised every year by EHF. The official name for the me ...

: **''Winner'': 2010/2011, 2012/2013, 2013/2014, 2016/2017, 2020/2021 **''Finalist'': 2011/2012, 2015/2016 **''Semifinalist'': 2009/2010 *

EHF Cup Winners' Cup The EHF Cup Winners' Cup was the official competition for men's and women's handball clubs of Europe that won their national cup, and took place every year. From the 2012–13 season, the men's competition was merged with the EHF Cup. Winners ...

: **''Finalist'': 2009 **''Semifinalist'': 2006 *Norwegian Championship: **''Winner'': 2008/2009 (Larvik), 2009/2010 (Larvik), 2010/2011 (Larvik), 2019/2020 (Vipers), 2020/2021 (Vipers) **''Silver medalist'': 2018/2019 (Storhamar) *Norwegian Cup: **''Winner'': 2008, 2009, 2010, 2019, 2020 **''Finalist'': 2018 *

Nemzeti Bajnokság I The Nemzeti Bajnokság (, "National Championship"), also known as NB I, is the top level of the Hungarian football league system. The league is officially named OTP Bank Liga after its title sponsor OTP Bank. UEFA currently ranks the league 28 ...

: **''Winner'': 2012, 2013, 2014, 2016, 2017 *

Magyar Kupa The Hungarian Cup ( hu, Magyar Kupa) is the Hungarian cup competition for football clubs. It was started by the Hungarian Football Association, the ''Magyar Labdarúgó Szövetség,'' in 1909, eight years after the commencement of the Hungarian ...

: **''Winner'': 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016

Awards and recognition

* Top Scorer of Eliteserien: 2008/2009 (216 goals), 2009/2010 (204 goals), 2010/2011 (221 goals) * Best Player of Eliteserien: 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011 * All Star Line Player of Eliteserien: 2008/2009, 2009/2010, 2010/2011, 2019/2020, 2020/2021 * EHF Champions League Top Scorer: 2011 (99 goals) * All-Star Line Player of the European Championship: 2010, 2012, 2014 * All-Star Line Player of the World Championship: 2011, 2015 *

: 2011 (also nominated for 2012) * All Star Line Player of the Summer Olympics: 2012, 2016 * All-Star Team Best Line Player of the

: 2014/2015; 2015/2016 * Foreign Handballer of the Year in Hungary: 2015 * All-Star Pivot of the

Møbelringen Cup The Intersport Cup, formerly known as the Møbelringen Cup, is an annual women's handball tournament arranged by the Norwegian Handball Federation. Norway plus three invited national teams compete for the title, normally in a single round-robin fo ...

: 2018

References

External links

*
Heidi Løke on europamester.dk
{{DEFAULTSORT:Loke, Heidi 1982 births Living people Sportspeople from Tønsberg Norwegian female handball players Expatriate handball players Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Denmark Norwegian expatriate sportspeople in Hungary Győri Audi ETO KC players Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players of Norway Olympic medalists in handball Olympic gold medalists for Norway Olympic bronze medalists for Norway Medalists at the 2012 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 2016 Summer Olympics