Nikola Karabatic fuelled by "emotion" to give everything he has at 38 years old
Less than a year after winning a third Olympic title with Team France, 38-year-old Nikola Karabatic remains at the top of his game. If he continues to push himself forward it is because he wants to share the emotion of victory with the younger generations, with the dream of Paris 2024 in his sights.
Handball
Three-time Olympic champion, four-time world champion, three-time European champion and three-time Champions League winner. Nikola Karabatic is a legend of his sport by anyone’s standards. The history-making handball player continues to write more chapters in his illustrious sporting tale, even as new challenges emerge.
Just months prior to the Olympic Games Tokyo 2020, Karabatic was cheering on his teammates as he watched the World Championships from his sofa.
When Les Bleus came fourth at the Worlds in Egypt, Karabatic was recovering from a ruptured anterior cruciate ligament (ACL). It was the type of injury that may have halted the ambitions of other athletes his age.
But Karabatic fought back.
In May 2021, he joined up with a new-look French team, led by former teammate Guillaume Gille. While fellow members of the team Michaël Guigou (40) and Luc Abalo (37) retired from the national team after Tokyo 2020, Karabatic, who has just turned 38, carried on.
The reason? To share the emotional journey with a new generation.
“Today I enjoy different things,” he explained in an exclusive interview with Olympics.com. “I have had the chance to fulfil all my dreams and win every title many times. The joy is always extraordinary but I’ve realised that sharing this joy with people who have never experienced it gives me immense happiness and strong emotions. This is partly what pushes me to give everything I have at 38 years old.”
The quest for a fourth Champions League trophy
Karabatic shared these emotions with the next generation when his club side Paris Saint-Germain handball beat Norway’s Elverum 37-30 in the Champion's League play-off game in Stade Pierre de Coubertin on 7 April.
Karabatic scored four goals from five shots and provided two assists.
The win took his team into the quarter-finals where they will face Kiel (11 and 18 May) and leaves PSG with a chance of playing in Final 4. It also means Karabatic is still in the running to win a fourth Champions League title with a fourth different club after his previous victories with Montpellier, Kiel and Barcelona.
“To win the Champions League is a priority for my club,” he said, before expanding upon what it would take to achieve the goal. “Unfortunately, we have had many injuries to deal with. Mikkel Hansen suffered from thrombosis and a pulmonary embolism and didn’t finish the season. Nedim [Remili] just sprained his ankle…
“Yes, we are PSG and everybody thinks we are strong favourites, but we aren’t anymore. The favourites are Kiel, Barcelona, Kielce and Veszprém.
“I think we can rattle those teams and I’m going to fight to qualify for the Final 4.”
A long and emotional season
Karabatic’s season began last July with the Olympics and hasn’t ever really ended. He returned, first to the PSG team and then to the French selection for January’s Euro 2022 competition, where they finished fourth after a campaign blighted by injuries to Nedim Remili, Luka Karabatic, Timothey N'Guessan and Elohim Prandi. After the championships, he returned to his club side who remain undefeated in their national league and are nine points ahead of second-placed Nantes.
It’s hard to conceive of an athlete keeping up such a busy schedule when closing in on 40 years old, but the three-time winner of the IHF World Player of the Year (2007, 2014 and 2016) seems able to deal with everything that's thrown at him.
“I sometimes feel some pain and I don’t really know why, but in general I feel physically and mentally strong,” he said.
The role he plays for the PSG and French teams are different but the impact he has is still important.
“In years gone by I needed to score, pass, defend, attack and counter-attack for an hour each game. Now I still do that but for 30 minutes of 40 each match. I pay more attention to transmission and helping others, even if that was always part of my game.”
A homecoming for the Olympic champions
On 14 April, Karabatic will play the first of two friendly games against Spain - bronze medallists at the last Olympics and World Championships - at the AccorHotels Arena in Paris.
“It’s a very strong team to face in two friendlies, as they reach the podium at almost every competition,” says the French centre-back who will be playing his first games on home soil since winning the Olympic title.
But for Karabatic, whose younger sibling also plays for the national team, the interest in those games will go beyond sport.
“We’ll play in France in front of a home crowd, with family and friends… it will be fantastic,” he said.
Could it be a taster for the Olympic Games Paris 2024 that will take place in a little more than two years’ time? For now, Karabatic is under contract with PSG until the end of the 2023 season. Beyond that, the future is unknown.
“In an ideal world I’d still be in shape, everything would be going well and my body would hold out. And if my body holds out, the motivation will still be there. And then, why not dream of Paris 2024?
“But I’m not trying to look too far into the future, just to enjoy the journey because it will come to an end. I want to enjoy the adventure as it flies by very quickly.”
The next big date with the French team will be the World Championships in Poland and Sweden in January 2023. In the meantime, Karabatic hopes to be able to share new emotions that come with winning alongside his teammates at PSG.
It is the fuel he needs to lead France toward a historic Olympic victory on home soil.