Yvette Broch: From top model to handball star

Catwalks and photoshoots don’t usually go with handball and resin.

For Dutch handballer Yvette Broch, who has navigated both the modelling and handball worlds, they might just do.

Although the two worlds may seem very different, the Dutch handball star shared that they do have some similarities.

“It is kind of the same feeling you get before a catwalk and before a handball match,” Broch told Olympics.com.

“There's a lot of adrenaline, before you get on the catwalk and it's time for you to go. It was an extremely nice feeling, and the same is the case when I run onto the court now. I also get a very good feeling. They are both very competitive but very different.”

However, in both modelling and handball, Broch has been fighting a mental battle, trying to find out who she wants to be and what she wants to do.

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Yvette Broch: Holland's Next Top Model

At the age of 17, Broch participated in the fourth season of Holland's Next Top Model.

She made it all the way to the final episode where she finished as the runner-up.

And that second place kickstarted Broch’s modelling career.

“I remember as a young girl, modelling was something very interesting for me. At that time, I thought working as a model was a wild job to have,” Broch recalled.

“After the TV show, I stopped playing handball for almost two years, because it was not possible to do both at the same time. And back then, I also didn't have the dream of becoming a professional handball player. I had this opportunity to get into the modelling world, and I thought, 'let's go for it'.”

While a modelling career did seem intriguing at first, there was also the flip side of the coin, which led to health issues for Broch.

That's why she decided to call it quits after two years in the industry.

“For me, it was because of my health. Mostly physically, as I wasn't eating enough. I was young, and I did some things that I maybe wouldn't have done today to become so skinny,” Broch explained.

“I was paying a lot of attention to what I ate to a degree where it almost became obsessive. Maybe it came from me thinking about not being good enough. You want to be as good as possible, and if that meant that you needed to lose weight, I did it. But you need to be healthy and back then, everyone had to be a size one. Thankfully, it's different now, and you can be all sizes as a model.”

Today, Broch occasionally works as a model choosing brands that align with her values.

Yvette Broch: I’m glad I didn’t win

Looking back at her modelling career today, the Dutchwoman sees it as a period where she started to understand herself better.

But had Broch won Holland's Next Top Model, her world might have been completely different.

“Actually, I'm glad I didn't win. Maybe it was a sign that it was just not supposed to be. It was an extremely nice experience. I learned a lot about myself. These two years, I learned, how to accept myself for who I am,” the pivot said.

“Before, if you told me I was too fat, I felt like that was the truth. When you are young, you take things more personally, and this was a big lesson. So, I took a lot with me from that time. I think it's nonsense because everybody is beautiful, as we are.”

After two years working as a model, Broch realiaed that it did not suit her.

The pivot allowed her some time to reflect on the lessons she had learned before reaching out to some of her former teammates from the Dutch national youth handball teams.

Ultimately, Broch joined their team in Amsterdam, restarting her handball career.

“I really liked playing again. So, I kept going, and everything went really fast from there,” she added.

In 2015, Broch joined the Hungarian giants Győri, the most successful women's handball team in the world for the past 15 years.

Yvette Broch's inner struggle after her second Champions League win

Three years after joining Győri, Broch won the Champions League for the second time.

She was at the pinnacle of her career, having been named the All Star pivot of the 2016 European Championship and the 2017 World Championship. This is addition to winning three championship medals with the Netherlands women's national handball team.

“But when I won the Champions League, I wasn’t really happy,” Broch said.

“Something was wrong. I thought after winning it, I was going to be happy for the rest of my life somehow. That is what society tells you that the only thing that matters is winning gold.”

“Well, it wasn’t for me. Back then, I needed to find out what I do wrong. I played for the best club, I was a big star, I had a nice apartment, everything was good. And now I was going to stop? I worked so hard to play for this club? So, I had this fight inside myself.”

Eventually, Broch decided to take a break from the sport following thorough consideration.

“I stopped to give myself time to think about what I wanted to do, and who I wanted to be. The two and half years where I stopped were the most interesting time of my life to learn about myself. It was like an eye-opener for me. Because in handball, I was also almost obsessed to be the best.”

“I think I lost myself a little bit to handball. Every day somebody judges you because you need to perform every game. You almost become 'only a handball player', and I put myself a side. Then at one point it was enough.”

Yvette Broch: 'It would be nice to finish with the Olympic Games'

Initially, Broch had retired from handball for good. After almost two and a half years away from the sport, a chat with her husband sparked thoughts about a potential comeback.

“I wasn't thinking to come back at all because I was in peace with it. But when I was hiking with my husband on the Mount Olympus in Greece, he asked, seven months before the Tokyo Olympics; ‘You don't want to go?’ I said, 'it’s not possible anymore, I have lost ten kilos.' But the thought kept staying on my mind,” Broch explained.

She reached out to Emmanuel Mayonnade, the coach of the Netherlands women's national handball team at the time, who was also coaching her former club Metz in France.

They agreed that Broch could come and train with the team. “I did two weeks undercover training in Metz to see how my body responded, and now I'm still playing,” Broch said.

After one year in France, she signed a two-year-deal with Győri again.

Although she missed out on Tokyo 2020, she is back with Dutch national team at the 2023 World Women's Handball Championship.

Soon,  the 32-year-old will retire from handball for the last time, hopefully with a nice ending in Paris.

“I will finish my career next year. So of course, I think it would be nice to finish with the Olympic Games,” Broch concluded.