Pink doesn’t pay a fine after all, beach handball players have a better idea

The Norwegian beach handball players have made headlines in the past few days: their decision to compete in longer sports shorts at the European Championships instead of the required tight bikini bottoms has received international attention. The handball players had to pay a fine totaling 1500 euros for this violation, which caused outrage. The US singer Pink had announced that she would take the sentence.

Now one of the players has commented on how the athletes themselves perceived all the excitement. “It’s shocking that we had to pay not to play in panties,” Tonje Lerstad, goalkeeper for the Norwegian team, told the BBC. She described the fact that her refusal received so much attention as “crazy”.

Norwegians surprised by Pink’s offer

The fine did not come as a surprise to the Norwegian players, after all, the dress code is in the regulations, and the team was warned beforehand. Nevertheless, the punishment was “unbelievable”: “It’s really stupid, but we just have to keep fighting.”

The 24-year-old and her teammates were overwhelmed by the reaction of the pop star Pink. The singer had offered to take the fine on Twitter. “We were shocked, but it was really important news and we appreciate that,” said Lerstad. One player posted the tweet on the team’s Whatsapp group, she said: “Everyone said: ‘Wow, that’s really awesome'”

EHF donates fine

After days of discussion it is now clear that the Norwegian federation will pay the fine to the European handball federation EHF in accordance with the regulations. The EHF, in turn, has announced that it will donate the sum to “an important international sports foundation” which is committed to promoting equality between girls and women in sport. So Pink won’t have to pay – the players around Tonje Lerstad have another suggestion: “She doesn’t have to pay anything, but she can get us a couple of tickets and we can then meet at a concert in our shorts.”

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