Austria's handball stars 2025: Reichert and Frimmel in the spotlight!

Austria's handball stars 2025: Reichert and Frimmel in the spotlight!

The handball world can look back on impressive achievements by Austrian athletes. On June 9, 2025, Johanna Reichert and Sebastian Frimmel were voted Austria's handball players of the year by a jury of experts. Loud LAOLA1 Johanna Reichert, who plays for Thüringer HC, impressed with a total of 246 goals in the German women's league last season and was thus crowned the best thrower. Sebastian Frimmel, who served as captain of the men's national team, also impressed and successfully prevailed in the competition against his teammates Lukas Hutecek and Lukas Herburger.

What is particularly noteworthy is that the men's national team was also named Team of the Year. Coach Ales Pajovic received the title of Coach of the Year and enabled the team to qualify for the 2026 European Championships before moving to Flensburg-Handewitt.

Reichert leads the league

Johanna Reichert also recently proved her class in the Bundesliga when the Thüringer HC won 36:35 in a thrilling game against HSG Bensheim/Auerbach. The decisive goal came just three seconds before the end, which not only secured Reichert the victory, but also made her the best thrower of the game with ten goals scored. The Saxons reports that Thüringer HC reached fourth place in the table with this victory.

The team showed an impressive performance, broke away several times from the start and was already leading 11:7 in the 14th minute. Goalkeeper Christina Lövgren Hallberg contributed significantly to the defensive work in the second half by making several important saves. The victory was hard fought, but Reichert was finally able to score the decisive goal after opponent Nina Engel equalized with 23 seconds left.

Austria in an international context

The Austrian handball team is one of the most relevant teams in Europe and is part of an extensive association network that covers numerous countries. In addition to Austria, many other nations are active in the European handball scene, including Denmark, Germany, France and Spain. The local women's and men's national teams regularly contribute to international tournaments and fight for good placings. This is also underlined by the fact that the women's team has enjoyed great success in the past Wikipedia points out the large number of nations taking part in European competitions.

The awards for Reichert and Frimmel are not only recognition of their individual achievements, but also an important step for the visibility of handball in Austria. It will be exciting to see how the careers of these two athletes and the teams will develop.