Gitte Madsen (born 24 March 1969 in

Herning Herning () is a Denmark, Danish town in the Central Denmark Region of the Jutland peninsula. It is the main town and the administrative seat of Herning Municipality. Herning has a population of 51,782 (1 January 2025)

Midtjylland The Central Denmark Region (), or more directly translated as the Central Jutland Region and sometimes simply Mid-Jutland, is an administrative region of Denmark established on 1 January 2007 as part of the 2007 Danish municipal reform. The refo ...

) 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 and Olympic champion. She received 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 12 February 2008) With the danish national team, she has also won both the World Championship and European Championship.

Club career

Madsen played for

Horsens HK Horsens Håndboldklub Elite, also known as Horsens Håndboldklubis a Danish handball club. For the 2018/19 season, the team promoted to the Damehåndboldligaen, after its relegation in 2010. The team plays at home in Forum Horsens. At elite l ...

until 1991. In her last season at the club, in 1990-91 she was the top scorer in the Danish league. For the 1991-92 she switched to Norwegian club

Bækkelagets SK Bækkelagets Sportsklub is a Norwegian sports club from Bekkelaget in southern Oslo, founded in 1909. The club has sections for skiing (including ski jumping and biathlon), orienteering, handball, football, floorball and track and field athletics ...

where she played for 3 years. Here she won the Norwegian league in 1992 and in 1994 with the club. In 1994 she returned to Danish handball to play for first DHG Håndbold followed by

GOG Håndbold GOG is a professional handball club based in the small town of Gudme on Funen, Denmark. The club is one of the most successful in the history of Danish handball having won the Danish Handball Championship 9 times and the Danish Handball Cup a r ...

. She returned as the last stop of her career to

, where she won the

EHF Cup Winners' Cup The EHF Cup Winners' Cup was the official competition for men's and women's handball clubs of Europe Europe is a continent located entirely in the Northern Hemisphere and mostly in the Eastern Hemisphere. It is bordered by the Arctic Ocea ...

in 1998 as well as her third Norwegian league title. Her career ended in

2000 2000 was designated as the International Year for the Culture of Peace and the World Mathematics, Mathematical Year. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the first year of the 21st century and the 3rd millennium, because of a tende ...

after suffering three separate

Spinal disc herniation A disc herniation or spinal disc herniation is an injury to the intervertebral disc between two vertebrae, usually caused by excessive strain or trauma to the spine. It may result in back pain, pain or sensation in different parts of the body, ...

s within 6 months.

Coaching Career

From 2019 to 2022 she acted as the Norwegian U-18 coach together with

Kristine Lunde Kristine Lunde-Borgersen (born 30 March 1980) is a retired Norwegian handballer who played for the Norwegian national team. She is Olympic champion, World Champion and three times European champion. She is the twin sister of fellow handball p ...

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Madsen, Gitte 1969 births Living people Danish female handball players Danish handball coaches Female handball coaches Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Handball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Herning Municipality Handball players from the Central Denmark Region GOG players