Athlete of the week – Handball player Sorina Grozav

At the Women's Handball World Championship in Germany and the Netherlands, after the group stage, the top scorer of the competition was a Romanian

Florin Orban, 09.12.2025, 13:45

Romania’s women’s handball team has achieved its best result in 10 years at a World Championship. At the competition currently underway in Germany aănd the Netherlands, coach Ovidiu Mihăilă’s players secured 9th place, achieving the goal they set before leaving the country, which was to finish among the top 10 nations. The Romanian players defeated Croatia, Japan, Senegal, and Switzerland, losing only to Denmark and Hungary, two of the best teams in the world. The Danes are European vice-champions, and the Hungarian athletes won bronze medals at the last continental competition. The Romanian team performed above expectations, especially given that it is in the midst of a rebuilding process following the retirement of several top players. Without Cristina Neagu, who has ended her career, and without Crina Pintea and Eliza Buceschi, who have retired from the national team, it seemed that it would be difficult for coach Ovidiu Mihăilă to build a competitive team. However, he succeeded, relying on other high-level players such as Sorina Grozav, Lorena Ostase, Cristina Laslo, Alisia Boiciuc, and goalkeepers Bianca Curmenț and Iulia Dumanska. After the games in Rotterdam, experts noticed Sorina Grozav, who was the top scorer of the competition after the preliminary rounds and the main group stage, scoring 46 goals. For her performance at the World Championship, Radio Romania International named Sorina the Athlete of the Week.

Sorina Grozav was born in Râmnicu Vâlcea on May 27, 1999, into a family of athletes. Her mother, Mariana Tîrcă, is a legend of Romanian handball. She played 335 times for the Romanian national team, scoring 2,043 goals, a world record for a national team. Sorina started playing handball as a junior at the Energetic College in Râmnicu Vâlcea, where a National Center of Excellence in women’s handball had been established. She made her senior debut at the age of 16 with Corona Brașov. In 2021, she was loaned to Rapid București, which signed her permanently in 2022. With Rapid, she reached the quarterfinals of the Champions League in 2023. This year, she returned to Corona. She was first called up to Romania’s senior national team in 2016 for the Carpathian Trophy in Cluj-Napoca. She plays as a left back. (MI)