Inspirational Germany Beach Handball international Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar has been nominated for the prestigious ‘The World Games Athlete of the Year 2024’ award – and you can help her win it.

The World Games (TWG) is a multi-sport event held every four years that features around 35 sports on its programme, with the next edition taking place in Chengdu, People’s Republic of China, from 7-17 August 2025 and one which will again feature Beach Handball.  

Kretzschmar has been nominated for the award in recognition of her extraordinary year in 2024 and follows the Germany Women’s Team being nominated for the 2021 award.

2024 saw Lucie-Marie help her Germany team win the 2024 IHF Women’s Beach Handball World Championship in Pingtan, China, where she was also voted into the competition All-star Team as best defender. The title ensured her team a full sweep of titles, adding to their 2023 European title and 2022 The World Games title.

The defender was also awarded The World Games Athlete of the Month award for June 2024.

How to vote for Lucie-Marie 

1. From 12:00 GMT (13:00 CET) on Thursday 9 January, visit the IWGA voting page here.

2. Go to the picture of Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar / Beach Handball picture

3. Click on ‘Vote’ – Lucie-Marie will receive two votes

4. Choose a second candidate and click ‘Vote’ – your second choice will receive one vote. You must vote for TWO candidates each time. Two votes go to your first-choice candidate (Lucie-Marie Kretzschmar), and one vote to your second choice. If you try to give votes to one candidate only, the votes will not be registered. This is to bring The World Games family closer together by introducing athletes to more than just their ‘own’ fans.

5. Do this once every 24 hours (you are only allowed to vote once every 24 hours)

6. From Wednesday 22 January at 12:00 GMT, the 10 highest-ranked candidates will continue. All candidates will restart with 0 votes

7. Repeat the process above until Friday 31 January at 12:00 GMT, when voting closes.

8. Once you have voted, share your vote on your social media channels using the hashtag #beachhandball and tell all your friends to vote for Lucie-Marie.

Good luck Lucie-Marie!

Terms
Votes may be cast via The World Games website, with a limit of one voting session per 24 hours. Each voting session must include votes for two candidates: two votes for your first-choice candidate and one vote for your second choice. Please note that votes cast for only one candidate will not be counted.

Throughout the campaign, the vote tallies for each candidate will be displayed in real time.

All voters shall act in accordance with fair play in sport. The IWGA will monitor the voting process rigorously, and any irregularities will be investigated. Actions contrary to the spirit of sport may result in appropriate consequences.

To see which teams have qualified for Chengdu 2025, click HERE. and for quotes, click HERE.

To read an interview with the Sport Manager of Beach Handball at The World Games 2025, click HERE.

About the International World Games Association, The World Games and Beach Handball

The International World Games Association (IWGA) is a non-profit-making international sports organisation recognised and supported by the International Olympic Committee.

The IWGA comprises 40 International Member Sports Federations. It administers and promotes The World Games (TWG), a multi-sport event held every four years that features around 35 sports on its programme. The next edition of TWG will be in Chengdu (CHN) from 7-17 August 2025. 5,000 participants from more than 100 countries are expected to take part in this 12th edition. The latest Games were hosted by Birmingham (USA).

Beach Handball has been part of The World Games since it was introduced as a demonstration/invitational sport in Japan in 2001. It then followed in Germany (2005) and Chinese Taipei (2009), before becoming a full sport at the 2013 edition in Colombia and then continuing in Poland (2017) and the USA (2022).