European esports organisation Heroic has appointed former professional handball player and Olympic gold medallist Lasse Svan as a Performance Coach.
In his new role, Svan will work with Heroic’s CS:GO team to make sure their emotional, physical and mental needs are met.
Prior to joining Heroic, Svan was competing as a professional handball player since 2002. He played for Danish handball club GOG Håndbold for six years and then he moved to German club SG Flensburg-Handewitt for another 14 years. Svan made more than 240 apperances for the Danish national team and won a gold medal at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro.
In addition to his life as a top athlete, Svan also worked as a performance coach for eight years and an expressed interest in following that career path after retirement.
In an interview with Danish media outlet TV 2 Sport, Svan said about his new role: “It’s always something I’ve cared about. I’ve always cared about people around me feeling good. So it was obvious to me that this was the path I should follow after handball. And I love it. I think it’s great to work with, develop and help people.”
At the moment, Svan and the CS:GO team will focus on the BLAST Premier: Fall Groups 2022 — set to conclude on August 28th — with the ultimate goal of competing at the World Finals in December. Heroic recently acquired a BLAST Premier Member Team slot from Immortals, gaining direct entry to Fall Groups.
Svan will replace Heroic’s former performance coach Troels Robl who departed the team to join Swedish esports organisation Ninjas in Pajamas (NIP) earlier this month.
Moreover, Svan is not the first handball athlete to take an interest in esports, specifically the CS:GO scene. In 2017, retired handball goalkeeper Kasper Hvidt joined Danish esports organisation Astralis as its Director of Sports, where he remains up to this day.
