BIOGRAPHY
Valerie Nicolas has now been involved in handball for over 30 years, since picking up the sport aged 10. She started out as a field player before finally moving into the goalkeeper position after six years, and then began to enjoy the role.
Nicolas’ senior career began at USM Gagny but her first big move was to Besançon at the age of 20. She spent eight years with the club, helping it to become one of the top sides in Europe as well as France. Nicolas won the French championship and French cup twice with Besançon as well as the Cup Winners’ Cup in 2003, before she decided it was time to move on.
The next stop, for a total of five years, was to be Denmark. With Viborg, Nicolas’ success continued; during the four seasons she spent there the club won two Danish championships, one Danish Cup, the EHF Cup, and then in 2006 the EHF Champions League after defeating Krim in a tight doubleheader.
But that Champions League title was almost not to be. Nicolas injured her knee at the Athens 2004 Olympic Games and missed a whole year of training, but Viborg kept the faith and enabled her comeback in 2005.
In her international career, lasting from 1995 to 2008, Nicolas helped France to World Championship gold and silver and two EHF EURO bronze medals. She played 234 games for the national team, and was named MVP and All-star goalkeeper at the 2003 World Championship as well as All-star goalkeeper at the 2007 edition of the competition.
Nicolas retired from playing handball after four years with ASPTT Nice in the French fourth division; she has since taken on coaching, and is the head coach of France’s women’s beach handball team.
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