Role Models

Joyce van Haaster

"Expect the unexpected — it means a lot to me! When I was ill, there was one time it was really bad, the prognoses were not very good at that moment, a lot of things went wrong and then, well, my mum came to me and she said, 'Joyce, expect the unexpected. Let go of all of the nastiness and assume the outcome is overly positive, one way or another.' And that gave me the strength to keep going. Everybody gets these issues in life and when you get that…yeah, when you get that, it gives you the power to go through it. And yes, I thought I would never play handball again because, well, because of my leg, and because there was even no wheelchair handball at that time, so, well, handball was done. And now I’m already playing 10 years wheelchair handball in the national team! So, expect the unexpected!"

August 2025

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Why Joyce as a role model?

Joyce van Haaster is one of the key forces in wheelchair handball, whose immense impact on the game is helping to shape it as the discipline becomes more broadly played and competitive. Van Haaster can hardly attend a major tournament without earning an individual award — she was female MVP of the 1st Four-a-Side Wheelchair Handball World Championship in 2022 and has been named in four All-star Teams for her position as goalkeeper.

Van Haaster is an exceptional example of the kind of qualities promoted through the role models project, including resilience, perseverance and passion for handball. At the Women’s Handball Conference 2024, she featured with her presentation “Expect the unexpected,” where she focused on how attitude can help one find the best in life even in the hardest moments and take you places you could not have imagined.

Van Haaster was part of the Netherlands Young Age Category teams before discovering the malignant tumour in her leg that would change her life. Gradually, she found her way back to handball, to the wheelchair discipline. There, she has won two EHF Nations’ Tournament trophies with the Netherlands. 
Outside handball, van Haaster has her own business as a kinesiologist, “Balance of Joy.” 

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Career path

  • 1994–1996: HC Westland (indoor handball)
  • 1996–2001: HC Quintus (indoor handball)
  • 2001–2002: HV Cometas (indoor handball)
  • 2014–2022: C.S.V. Handbal (wheelchair handball) 
  • 2012– : HV Quintus (wheelchair handball)

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LIST OF TEAM AND INDIVIDUAL AWARDS

  • EHF Nations Tournament
    • Gold: 2015, 2016
    • Bronze: 2018
  • World and European Six-a-Side Wheelchair Handball Championship
    • Silver: 2022
  • MVP 
    • EHF Nations Tournament 2015, 2016, 2018, 2019
    • World and European Six-a-Side Wheelchair Handball Championship 2022
    • 1st IHF Four-a-Side Wheelchair Handball World Championship 2022

DIVE DEEP INTO JOYCE'S WORLD

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Inside the EHF

Empower to inspire: The new balance of Joyce van Haaster

EMPOWER TO INSPIRE: A leg disease initially ended the Dutch goalkeeper’s promising handball career, which she then pursued successfully in a…

2 years ago

< TAKE ME BACK TO HER PLAYGROUND

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