Loui Nelum Sandamali Sand (born Louise Sand; 27 December 1992 in

Modara Modara (; ), also known as Mutwal ''(anglicised version)'', is a municipal ward of Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka. The mouth of the river Kelani Ganga also lies nearby. It is part of the postal area ''Colombo 15''. See also * Rock House Army Camp ...

Sri Lanka Sri Lanka, officially the Democratic Socialist Republic of Sri Lanka, also known historically as Ceylon, is an island country in South Asia. It lies in the Indian Ocean, southwest of the Bay of Bengal, separated from the Indian subcontinent, ...

) is a Swedish

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 goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player. In January 2019, Sand announced his retirement from handball due to

gender dysphoria Gender dysphoria (GD) is the distress a person experiences due to inconsistency between their gender identitytheir personal sense of their own genderand their sex assigned at birth. The term replaced the previous diagnostic label of gender i ...

. In 2021, he made a comeback in handball, as he signed a contract with the Swedish Kärra HF's men's team, becoming the first trans professional handball player in Sweden.

Early life

Sand was adopted from Sri Lanka by a Swedish couple and raised in

Gothenburg Gothenburg ( ; ) is the List of urban areas in Sweden by population, second-largest city in Sweden, after the capital Stockholm, and the fifth-largest in the Nordic countries. Situated by the Kattegat on the west coast of Sweden, it is the gub ...

Career

He started his career at the youth team of Kärra HF in 2001. He then joined

Önnereds HK Önnereds HK is a handball club based in Gothenburg, Sweden. Around 60 teams are organized in the club. Since 1965, handball has been played in the Gothenburg district of Önnered. In 1985, the club was split into a football and a handball depart ...

for four years before joining Swedish top club

IK Sävehof Idrottsklubben Sävehof better known as IK Sävehof is a Sweden, Swedish professional handball club located in Partille Municipality, Partille. Their home matches are played at the Partille Arena which has a capacity of 4,000. Women's team The ...

, where he debuted for the senior team in 2011. with the club he won 5 straigth Swedish championships from 2012 to 2016. He debuted for the

Sweden women's national handball team The Sweden women's national handball team () is the national team of Sweden. It is governed by the Swedish Handball Federation () and takes part in international handball competitions. Honours Competitive record Champions R ...

in October 2012, and later the same year played at his first major international tournament at the

2012 European Women's Handball Championship The 2012 European Women's Handball Championship was held in Serbia from 4 to 16 December. Originally the tournament was scheduled to be held in the Netherlands but on 4 June 2012 the Dutch Handball Federation withdrew from the organization. Subse ...

. At the

2014 European Women's Handball Championship The 2014 European Women's Handball Championship was the eleventh continental tournament for women's national teams, organized by the European Handball Federation. The second jointly hosted edition in the competition's history took place in Hunga ...

he won bronze medals with the Swedish team. In 2017 Sand joined French team Brest Bretagne HB in order to become professional. After a conflict with the coach, he left the club a year later. He then joined Fleury Loiret Handball. In January 2019 he left the club in order to transition. In May 2021 he made a comeback for the men's team at Kärra HF, where he had begun his career.

Achievements

Carpathian Trophy (women's handball) The Carpathian Trophy () is an annual women's friendly handball tournament organised by the Romanian Handball Federation. The first edition took place in Bucharest Bucharest ( , ; ) is the capital and largest city of Romania. The metropolis ...

: **''Winner'':

2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...

Handbollsligan Handbollsligan ''(literally, "The Handball league")'' is the highest league in the league system of Swedish handball, and comprises the top 14 Swedish handball teams. The first season began in 1931–32. The season ends with a playoff. Structur ...

**''Winner'': 2012, 2013, 2014, 2015, 2016 *

European Championship A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

**''Bronze medals'':

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Sand, Loui 1992 births Living people Swedish male handball players Handball players from Gothenburg Handball players at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Sweden IK Sävehof players Swedish adoptees Swedish expatriate handball players in France Swedish people of Sri Lankan descent Transgender sportsmen Swedish LGBTQ sportspeople Swedish transgender men LGBTQ handball players 21st-century Swedish sportsmen Brest Bretagne players