I'm Gro Hammerseng-Edin.
I'm a handball player and I'm an Olympic champion.
I started playing handball when I was ten years old
and I started because a friend I really looked up to
asked if I wanted to come to practice with her.
My name is Anja Hammerseng-Edin and I'm a handball player.
I started playing handball when I was four years old.
I always had the ball with me whatever I did, and I loved it.
I played my first handball match
when I was about ten years old,
I've been told by my father,
and I remember I thought it was great fun,
and I felt I had a some talent for it.
I was the smallest kid on the team
so I started as a goalkeeper.
And I thought that...
I had this passion for handball since I was a tiny little girl.
Anja as a handball player is very creative, technical.
She is especially great in the attack.
She is a smart and wise player. Great game intelligence.
And she's brave.
We're very, or I feel very dedicated to handball,
and when we don't succeed there,
I get emotional, it affects me,
and it makes me understand that
I still wish to get better at handball,
I still have a passion for what I'm doing,
and that's what drives me.
One of the greatest disappointments in my career
was when we didn't succeed
in qualifying for the Olympics in Athens in 2004,
and it was a great disappointment
for the Norwegian handball audience.
One of the greatest experiences
I've had as a handball player was winning
the European Championship in Hungary in 2004.
It was my first gold medal.
I was also the captain of the team.
Another very important moment would be
the Olympic gold medal in Beijing.
That's also one of my greatest moments as a handball player.
Gro is a physically strong player,
she's extremely skilful at what she does,
she's dedicated to the sport.
At the same time she's very concerned with making
her team-mates better so she is able to get
the best out of every player on our team.
Gro and I met
at a gathering for the national team
and I thought she was very special
and I liked her right away.
Anja and I met through handball,
at a gathering for the national team.
It was not the best timing in the world,
but it felt inevitable, in a way.
She was the one.
When I met Gro she was a very famous athlete in Norway
and the two of us as an item got a lot of attention
before we were ready to think of ourselves as a couple.
And that scared me, I felt it was a bit uncomfortable.
And my mother sent me a message asking me
if there was something I'd forgotten to tell her.
I don't know if the interest for us arose
because Gro was well known
or because we were two girls who were together,
but at the same time I think
that the media should respect people's privacy
and as we eventually chose to be open about it, I think that
that's been important, because there are a lot of people
who need to gain more knowledge about it.
I remember that some of the girls in the national team
asked if we were together
and Anja answered that, no, we weren't,
"Because she hasn't asked me."
So then I had to ask her,
before the whole team, basically
if she wanted to be my girlfriend.
It was important to me
that we weren't defined by someone else,
that we should define what we were ourselves,
and I felt that Gro had to make a bit of an effort to...
..to be with me.
I'd describe it like getting a bomb in your head, really.
It was very unexpected
and a bit of a cliche, in many ways.
I was really surprised once when Gro
gave me a tattoo as a Christmas present,
because that was so surprising.
She had actually said I shouldn't really have
any more tattoos, but I love tattoos
and so that was really a great declaration of love, I felt.
The most romantic thing Anja has done for me
was to propose to me.
She asked me if I would marry her.
So she did it in a proper way, kneeling and...
it was very nice.
When Mio was born, I thought that Gro
was the strongest woman I'd ever met.
At the same time, I felt
this great responsibility for a human being
and curiosity as to who he was. I wanted to get to know him.
I remember the first time Anja and I were going to fly
after Mio was born.
I started thinking, "What if something happens to us?
"Who is going to take care of him?" It was a new thought.
I suddenly got anxious that something might happen.
If I'm to say three things that I would change about Gro,
then I'll have to think about it.
One thing I might want to change would be
that she was keener on cleaning the house.
Good question.
One thing I would be tempted to say that Anja should change
would be to work a bit less,
but at the same time that's something I love,
that she's independent, creative,
that she has a burning passion for her projects.
I like her quite a lot, apparently!
We've been together for six years.
Together for six and married for...three.
Good.
I'd say it changes a bit when you get married.
I don't know exactly how to explain
what it is that changes.
I feel that having the same surname, for example,
has been a very nice thing.
Especially since we got Mio together.
Especially about the name.
That's been the greatest difference for us.
I like that we have the same surname.
For me that's meant an extra association with the family.
The feeling of being a family. I think it's nice.
When we had to decide a name for Mio,
we started with the name Theo,
which we considered for a while and which we liked a lot,
and then we came across this "name carousel" online
where you can type in names you like
and they give you similar suggestions,
options in the same genre.
And then Mio appeared.
And that was from a fairy tale that we both knew,
by Astrid Lindgren,
which is about a little boy who is very brave.
And we felt it would be appropriate
and we wanted to pass this name on to our son.
And then we like the fact that
we didn't know anyone with the name Mio.
So that's just him for us - him and the fairy tale.
Our last romantic holiday...
Maybe you should talk about that,
since you played the main role, really?
Yes, I was supposed to organise a trip for the two of us
to Copenhagen.
It was supposed to be a surprise holiday.
But then it turned out when we got to the airport that...
I apparently hadn't paid for the tickets I'd booked.
And you were patient, as always,
and took it with a big smile,
and then we ended up in Gothenburg instead.
We spend quite a lot of time on this beach
because it's so close to our house
and it's very peaceful here.
It's wonderful between training sessions
when Mio is at the kindergarten,
to make some coffee and come down here
for some downtime, really.
Yes, and some alone time where we can just be us
and not always mums or handball players,
but just take it easy and be together.
We're lucky to have a place like this
so close to our house.