Trine Skovgaard Nielsen (, born 16 October 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 Handball goalkeeper, goalkeeper) pass a ball using their hands ...

player, Olympic champion and recently sports commentator for TV 2 Denmark. She won 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 ...

in Athens."2004 Summer Olympics – Athens, Greece – Handball"
– ''databaseOlympics.com'' (Retrieved on 25 February 2008) Jensen has been

sports commentator In Broadcasting of sports events, sports broadcasting, a sports commentator (also known as a sports announcer or sportscaster) provides a real time (media), real-time live commentary of a game or event, traditionally delivered in the present t ...

for the television channel TV 2 Denmark since 2011, covering handball events as expert. In 2020 she had to stop at TV2 Danmark, when her brother, Jesper Jensen was appointed as the Denmark women's national handball team head coach, and TV2 did not allow their journalists to interview their own family members. She has also worked with sales- and sponsorships and as a part of the Graphical design department at the Danish handball 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 ...

, her former club. Since 2022 she has worked as

Sporting director A sporting director, or director of sport, is an executive management position in a sports club. The role is well known as a manager role for European football clubs, which are sometime also "sports clubs", offering many types of sports. The ...

for

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 ...

. After the 2024-25 season she will cease to be the sporting director at Odense, as the club will disband the position. She is a sister of the former Danish handball player and acting handball coach, Jesper Jensen. Her mother played for the Danish club

Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub Vejlby-Risskov Idrætsklub, commonly known as VRI, is a sports club based in Risskov, Aarhus, Denmark. VRI is mostly known for its association football department, which competes in the Denmark Series, the fifth tier of the Danish football leagu ...

and her father was a handball referee.

Playing career

Trine Nielsen grev up in

Hjortshøj Hjortshøj is a small railway town in Aarhus Municipality, Denmark. The town is located about 14 kilometres north of Aarhus, and has a population of 3,586 (1 January 2025).

, Denmark where she started playing at the local club Hjortshøj Egå IF, before moving to another Aarhus based club,

Brabrand IF Brabrand Idrætsforening is a Danish football club located in Brabrand in the western suburbs of Aarhus. They currently compete in the Danish 3rd Division, the fourth tier of the Danish football league system. Players Current squad ...

while playing for the U16 team. Here she started playing senior handball. She moved to Ikast-Bording EH at the age of 20, where she played for 4 years. Here she won 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 ...

in 2001, the

EHF European League 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 2002 and

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 2004. She moved to Aalborg DH at the age of 23, but did not even play for 6 months before she was fired. The club believed she had breached the contract. Nielsen did not agree and took the club to court, where she won 500.000 DKK in compensation. She quickly found a new club in GOG Svendborg TGI, where she under

Jan Pytlick Jan Pytlick (born 5 June 1967) is a Danish handball coach, and trains Saudi Arabia national team. He was head coach for the Danish women's national handball team from 1998 to 2006, and again from 2007 to 2014. Pytlick has led the women's nation ...

won the

in 2005.

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Nielsen, Trine 1980 births Living people Danish female handball players Olympic gold medalists for Denmark Handball players at the 2004 Summer Olympics Olympic medalists in handball Medalists at the 2004 Summer Olympics Handball players from Aalborg Olympic handball players for Denmark 21st-century Danish sportswomen GOG players Odense Håndbold players