I’m Amanda, the Sports Development Coordinator with Your Students’ Association. Last month, I played floorball for Team Scotland at the EuroGames in Bern, Switzerland, bringing home a bronze medal!
Originating in Sweden, floorball is a fast growing stick sport similar to hockey. Very popular in Scandinavian countries and Eastern Europe, the sport is gathering popularity in Scotland with teams all over the country competing in the Scottish Floorball League each year.
I live in Perth and play for the local team, Perth Parrots – Scotland’s first LGBT+ friendly floorball team. As well as focusing on player development in terms of training, the club provides a hub for Perthshire’s LGBT+ community, running a variety of free and heavily subsidised activities and social events such as paddleboarding, climbing and an annual Eurovision party.
Starting in 1986, the EuroGames is the largest LGBT+ multisports tournament in Europe, with teams and athletes from all over the world competing. Cities bid to host the games and the hosting city for this year was the beautiful Bern in Switzerland. Thousands of international LGBT+ athletes took over the city for four days for the games.
Usually, floorball is played with five outfield players and a goalie, however, the format at the EuroGames was three outfield players and a goalie, which required much more speed and stamina that we were used to. We trained hard as a team for months before the tournament day.
Arriving in Switzerland, we marched as a team as part of the EuroGames opening ceremony, celebrating with the many other athletes from different countries. I was interviewed for a Swiss news channel and there were plenty of British Embassy events for us to attend.
The tournament itself was an extremely intense day – Team Scotland had seven matches and potentially the playoffs. As we whizzed through the matches with great scores, the playoffs were looking more and more likely for us, but we were still in disbelief when it was announced that we would be playing Norway in the bronze medal match.
Scotland put on an absolute incredible performance, winning the match 7-1. As the underdogs going into the competition, words can’t explain how much it meant winning the bronze medal and doing it with such amazing teammates/ friends made it all the more special.
After coming home, we were straight back into training and we’ve got big plans for the EuroGames next year. Bring on Vienna 2024!
To find out about sports courses at UHI, visit www.uhi.ac.uk/courses
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