Rikke Erhardsen Skov (born 7 September 1980) 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 goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands with the aim of thr ...

player and Olympic champion. She received a gold medal with the Danish national team at the

2004 Summer Olympics The 2004 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXVIII Olympiad (), and officially branded as Athens 2004 (), were an international multi-sport event held from 13 to 29 August 2004 in Athens, Greece. The Games saw 10,625 athletes ...

Athens Athens ( ) is the Capital city, capital and List of cities and towns in Greece, largest city of Greece. A significant coastal urban area in the Mediterranean, Athens is also the capital of the Attica (region), Attica region and is the southe ...

."2004 Summer Olympics – Athens, Greece – Handball"
– ''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on February 25, 2008) A loyal player of

Viborg HK Viborg HK (Viborg Håndbold Klub) is a Danish professional handball club from Viborg, Denmark, Viborg. The club has many teams for both women and men, but especially the professional women's team is one of the most successful in Danish and Euro ...

, Skov joined the club yet as a teenager in 1994 and it remained her lone team till she retired in 2016 and retired from active sports when she became pregnant in February 2017. In 2011, she was one of the five handballers, and the only woman who received The EHF Handball Award. The prize was handed out in the 20th anniversary of the European Handball Federation for the players who achieved the biggest successes both in club and international level.

Club career

Skov started her handball career in 1992, aged 12. She played for Overlund GF until she joined

in 1994. With Viborg, Skov has won numerous titles, both domestic and European. Her achievements include winning the Champions League in 2006, 2009 and 2010, the

EHF Cup The EHF European League is an annual men's handball club competition organised by the European Handball Federation (EHF) since 1981. It is the second-tier competition of European club handball, ranking only below the EHF Champions League. Previo ...

in 1999 and 2004, four Danish Cups and seven Danish Championships.

National team

Rikke Skov made her debut with the

national team A national sports team (commonly known as a national team or a national side) is a team that represents a nation, rather than a particular club or region, in an international sport. The term is most commonly associated with team sports, for exa ...

on 28 July 2000, and was appointed team captain in 2007. She received an Olympic gold medal in Athens 2004 and a silver medal at the 2004 European Championship. Skov first retired from international handball in April 2009, until when she played 107 matches and scored 296 goals. However, Skov later changed her mind and participated on the 2010 European Women's Handball Championship, where she reached the fourth place. In 2011, she continued to play for the national team and participated among others on the GF World Cup '11, but before the squad selection for the 2011 World Championship she withdrew from the team to focus fully on her club duties. On Friday 29 April she announced that she ended her national team career.

Results

* Champions League : Winner: 2006, 2009, 2010 : Finalist: 2001 * EHF Cup : Winner: 1999 and 2004 * Danish Championship : Gold: 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002, 2004, 2006, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2014 : Silver: 2007 : Bronze: 2005 * Danish Cup : Winner: 2003, 2006, 2007 and 2008

Awards

*Danish national team player of the year () in 2006/07 and 2007/08 *Member of the All Star Team of the Møbelringen Cup 2008 *The EHF Handball Award winner (2011) * Danish Handball Cup MVP 2005-06, 2014-15

Personal life

Skov met fellow handballer Lotte Kiærskou as teammates for Viborg HK, and "never had any thought to keep their relationship secret."2012 Olympics: Who Are The LGBT Athletes? Day Twenty — Rikke Skov
They were in a registered partnership as allowed by Danish law. but split in 2011. Kiærskou, now retired, gave birth to the ex-couple’s two daughters. In 2017, Skov herself gave birth to a daughter fathered by her boyfriend, retired handball player Jakob Borrits Sabra, whom she married in 2018. In 2005, Skov became a

nurse Nursing is a health care profession that "integrates the art and science of caring and focuses on the protection, promotion, and optimization of health and human functioning; prevention of illness and injury; facilitation of healing; and alle ...

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Skov, Rikke 1980 births Living people Danish female handball players Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Handball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Handball players at the 2012 Summer Olympics Viborg HK players Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic handball players for Denmark LGBTQ handball players Danish LGBTQ sportspeople 21st-century Danish LGBTQ people 21st-century Danish sportswomen