Tonje Kjærgaard (born 11 June 1975) is a former Danish

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

player, World champion, two times European champion and two times Olympic champion. She won a gold medal with the Danish national team at the

1996 Summer Olympics The 1996 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXVI Olympiad, also known as Atlanta 1996 and commonly referred to as the Centennial Olympic Games) were an international multi-sport event held from July 19 to August 4, 1996, in Atlanta, ...

Atlanta Atlanta ( ) is the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Georgia (U.S. state), most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia (U.S. state), Georgia. It is the county seat, seat of Fulton County, Georg ...

."1996 Summer Olympics – Atlanta, United States – Handball"
– ''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 25 February 2008) Four years later she won a gold medal with the Danish national team at the

2000 Summer Olympics The 2000 Summer Olympics, officially the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, officially branded as Sydney 2000, and also known as the Games of the New Millennium, were an international multi-sport event held from 15 September to 1 October ...

Sydney Sydney is the capital city of the States and territories of Australia, state of New South Wales and the List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city in Australia. Located on Australia's east coast, the metropolis surrounds Syd ...

."2000 Summer Olympics – Sydney, Australia – Handball"
– ''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 25 February 2008) She also won the 1997 World Cup in Germany.

National team

Kjærgaard debuted on the Danish national team at only 18 years old. After the gold medal in Sydney, she retired from the national team, aged only 25. At that point, she had competed in 8 major international tournaments.

Club career

Kjærgaard played her entire senior career at

Ikast fS Ikast FC is an association football club based in the town of Ikast, Denmark, that competes in the Jutland Series, the sixth tier of the Danish football league system and the first tier of the regional DBU Jutland. Founded in 2018 as a superst ...

and is considered an icon for the club. She played her first match at the club at the age of 17. She was part of 1997/1998 team to win the first Danish League in the club's history. For a period she captained the team, and to this day her shirtnumber (no. 3) is taken out of use. She also won the Danish Cup three times with the club back-to-back-to-back between 1999 and 2001. In 2022 she won the

EHF European League The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previo ...

with the team.

Post playing career

In 2021 she entered the club board. Today she is a high school teacher in Ikast.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Kjaergaard, Tonje 1975 births Living people Danish female handball players Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Handball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2000 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2000 Summer Olympics Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Handball players from the Central Denmark Region Sportspeople from Silkeborg FCM Håndbold players