Gitte Jensby Sunesen Vilhelmsen (born 11 December 1971) 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, Olympic champion and World 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) Additionally, She is a two times European Champion; from 1994 and 1996 and World champion from 1997.

Club career

Sunesen played her entire career at Danish club

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 ...

. During her career she won the Danish league three times and the

Danish Women's Handball Cup The Danish Women's Handball Cup (), known as the Santander Cup for sponsorship reasons, is the main domestic cup tournament for Danish women's handball clubs, which is partially organised and supervised by the Danish Handball Federation. The com ...

two times. She debuted for the Danish national team in 1991 at the age of 21. She missed the

2000 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 ...

due to a knee injury suffered a month prior to the tournament in a friendly match against Norway. She retired from playing handball in 2003 due to knee injuries. In 2015 she was hired as goalkeeping coach at

Odense Håndbold Odense Håndbold (in its first season: Odense GOG and after that Handball Club Odense) is a Danish professional women's handball team, that plays in Damehåndboldligaen, Denmark's premier women's handball league. The team's home court is Sydb ...

Private life

During the last few years of her playing career as well as after her retirement she has worked as a primary school teacher. She is married to fellow handball player Keld Vilhelmsen. Her child Lasse Vilhelmsen is also a handball player.

References

1971 births Living people Danish female handball players Danish handball coaches Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Handball players at the 1996 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 1996 Summer Olympics People from Favrskov Municipality Handball players from the Central Denmark Region GOG players Female handball coaches {{Denmark-Olympic-medalist-stub