Lunde, Vyakhireva, Arenhart and Broch join Respect Your Talent programme

Established in 2019, the EHF’s Respect Your Talent (RYT) programme is dedicated to helping young players gather awareness, knowledge and skills alongside the game to become an even better, more complete athlete.

In 2025, the programme continued to thrive, providing many opportunities for the stars of tomorrow to benefit from the knowledge and experience of legends of the game.

At each of the summer’s Younger Age Category events — the Women’s 19 EHF EURO and EHF Championship, and Women’s 17 EHF EURO and EHF Championship — the Players of the Match were invited to special RYT events hosted by RYT ambassadors. A total of 314 young players participated in the sessions, ahead of being part of the programme on an ongoing basis.

This year’s line-up of ambassadors included new recruits Katrine Lunde and Anna Vyakhireva, who joined existing ambassadors Ana Gros, Anja Althaus, Andrea Lekic and Carmen Martin at the W19 EHF EURO. At the W17 EHF EURO, Barbara Arenhart participated for the first time alongside existing ambassadors Andrea Lekic and Katarina Bulatovic.
Althaus led the session at the W19 EHF Championship, while Martin ran the equivalent event at the W17 EHF Championship.

In November 2025, 31 players from 24 countries who were identified at the YAC tournaments took part in the RYT camp in Vienna, led by ambassadors Arenhart, Gros, Martin, Jelena Bumbak (nee Grubisic), and Yvette Broch — the latter making her debut in the programme.

The camp’s topic was the players’ journey: what a journey to the top looks like, and what needs to be considered off court for athletes to be the best versions of themselves. The three-day camp, including presentations and discussions, also included input from experts in different fields such as psychology, nutrition and media.
It was the second camp of the year, following the camp held for the male players identified in the 2024 YAC events in January 2025.

The RYT programme was also busy throughout the year away from the physical sessions, with plentiful resources on core topics such as handling social media, dual career, sports law, anti-doping, mental fitness and nutrition, all available on the RYT app. The app is not just restricted to those who are part of the programme.

Meanwhile the EHF ran a series of RYT online sessions hosted by ambassadors, on a wide variety of issues. These included balancing handball and studies, dealing with pressure, signing contracts, recovery, and athlete values.