Hi, my name is Amanda Sumalla. I am a Senior Honors Student Athlete at St. Brendan High School, Miami, Florida. I was the Salutatorian Graduate of Class of 2020 from Good Shepherd Catholic School, Miami, Florida.

I’ve had the honor of been selected to represent the USA at the upcoming 24th IHF Women's Junior (U20) World Championship for Team Handball. https://www.ihf.info/media-center/events/24th-ihf-womens-junior-u20-world-championship

Team Handball is a famous Olympic sport mostly popular in Europe. I have been playing Team Handball since 2012 in Spain, where I lived for 10 years, and continued to play the sport I love until 2018. At that time, I moved back with my family to Miami. Unfortunately for me, Team Handball did not exist in Miami, but my mom was able to get in contact with the USA National Team,

where I was able to try-out and be a part of the National Team since 2019.

After 5 years of representing our country, my team and I have been able to qualify to play in the biggest tournament in the world of Team Handball, the IHF Women's Junior (U20) World Championship in North Macedonia this upcoming summer.

Unfortunately, since this is not a popular sport in the USA, the US National Team Handball players need to fund by themselves the money needed to purchase airline tickets, accommodations, and transportation in order to secure their participation in representing USA in the next Junior Team Handball World Championship. With this tournament I would continue to gain experience to become an Olympic athlete, which would prepare me for the 2028 Olympics in Los Angeles, USA.

I kindly ask any donations you are willing to make to help me achieve my dream in representing my country in such a big tournament. Let’s go USA!

Trailblazers in the making!

USA Team Handball Junior Women's National Team made history twice in 2022, by qualifying to the U20 World Championships, after a 41-year hiatus, and by earning their first-ever victory in the final game of this 32-team tournament.

At that time, our team was the youngest in the competition with an average age of 17.6 years for an "under 20" category. Our coaching staff made the decision of bringing this generation to the international stage to enable them to accumulate key international experience.

After countless training camps, online team meetings with our players and staff behind scattered across continents, sacrifices, hard work and remarkable work ethics from players and staff alike, USATH Junior WNT came back to international competition this past December, at the Olympic Training Center in Mexico City, to compete in the Junior IHF trophy. The team showed great poise, outstanding team spirit, recognized progress and fought hard to not only earn a silver medal in this 6-team-tournament, but most importantly to punch their ticket to the 2024 IHF U20 World Championships! Qualifying for their second worlds in a row is an exceptional performance from a team ready to break more records!

Why do we need your help?

Back in 2022, the lack of financial support we are currently experiencing did not slow us down. Handball community generosity helped us then to bridge the gap and alleviate some of the costs for the players and staff. Since then, we have tirelessly worked on building corporate sponsoring strategies, but these avenues have not secured sustainable funding for the sport of handball yet. For those of you who are not familiar with the sport of Team Handball in the United States, our sport is primarily self-funded. Our athletes & staff have shown great abnegation, achieving goal after goal to build stronger national teams, to continue developing the sport of Olympic team handball!

With this generation of players, our greatest hope is to continue building international game experience in preparation for the 2028 Los Angeles-hosted Olympic Games, where the United States' determination and resilience will shine through great showing from the National Women's National Team!

In the words of our 2022 Team Captain, Gabrielle Martin, "Participating in the World Championships with Team USA was one of the most incredible handball experiences imaginable. Opportunities like these are rare for us, given that handball isn't as widely developed in the USA compared to countries like France and Norway. Therefore, being able to showcase our determination on the world stage, demonstrating the hard work and sacrifices we've made for this team, is absolutely essential. Having our family, friends, and everyone around to support us helped fuel our determination to fight until the very end!".

Every and any contribution will truly make a difference! Thank you in advance for your support! Go Team USA!