Martin Schwalb

Martin Schwalb was on the West German handball squad at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics that won the silver medal after losing 18-17 in the final to Yugoslavia. Therefore, all players were awarded the Silver Bay Leaf, Germany’s highest sports award. At Atlanta 12 years later he returned to the Olympics, finishing seventh with the now re-unified German team. He won 193 international caps and scored 594 goals.

Domestically, Schwalb played with TSG Steinheim (until 1980), TSG Oßweil (1980-82), Frisch Auf Göppingen (1982-84), TV Großwallstadt (1984-88), TUSEM Essen (1988-90, winning the German Championship in 1989), SG Wallau / Massenheim (1990-98, winning the German title in 1992 and 1993), and finally HC 93 Bad Salzuflen (1999). In 428 Bundesliga matches he scored 2,272 goals. Schwalb also won three Germans and two European Cups. In 1996 he was top scorer in the Bundesliga and was named Handball Player of the Year.

Schwalb later became a Bundesliga coach at SG Wallau / Massenheim from 1998-2005, HSG Wetzlar in 2005, HSV Hamburg from 2005-11 and 2012-14, and Rhein-Neckar Löwen since 2020. With HSV Hamburg he won the German Championships in 2011, the German Cup in 2006 and 2010, the European Champions League in 2013 and the European Cup Winners’ Cup in 2007. In 2000 and 2020 he was named Handball Coach of the Year.

Schwalb also worked with the German TV channels ARD and ZDF as a handball expert, commenting on several international tournaments. In 2014 he had a severe heart attack, but fully recovered following emergency surgery. In 2016 he was elected vice-president of HSV Hamburg. In 2020, he contracted the COVID-19 virus but again recovered.