Berlin’s global crew ready for World Games stage

If you grew up in Ireland, you might not remember your first interaction with the GAA. It was probably always just there.

For many of the players taking part at the World Games, the first introduction tends to be a lot more memorable.

Frenchwoman Clem Grousset was barely a week into her studies as an Erasmus student in Dublin back in 2016 when she was in Molloy's pub in Tallaght, finding her way in the city that would be her home for the next few months.

As she sat in the bar, she was drawn to the strange sport being shown on the television. "I was very confused at first, because it was all going so fast," she says. "But I guess it stuck with me because the trip to the pub was one of the first places I had actually gone to in Ireland at the time."

The sport was Gaelic football and the match was the drawn 2016 All-Ireland senior football final between Dublin and Mayo.

Clem never actually played Gaelic football for the rest of her time in Ireland. "I was way too shy!" she says. "But I remember the Irish inviting us international students to play with them and I had some friends who went to try it out."

Nonetheless, a seed had been planted. When she moved to the German capital Berlin several years later, her attention was drawn to Berlin GAA, a vibrant club in the city that has been in existence since 2014, and which plays Gaelic football, hurling and camogie.

"The fact that it's so niche outside of Ireland makes it also more approachable for adult beginners, at least in Berlin," she says. So she gave it a try and is now a committed member of the club.

Clem will line out at the oneills.com World Games, starting July 13^th in Waterford, with three of her clubmates from Berlin on two different teams. Clem’s team is the Central East Gaelic Games Europe team, a representative team from the region Berlin GAA plays in.

There she will be joined by clubmate Naoko Nakamura from Japan, while the other two Berlin players, Sophie Au (from Germany) and Sophia Garlick Bock (from Australia) will play with the German Ladies Football team.

Like Clem, Naoko’s introduction to Gaelic football came via a screen. "My first encounter with Gaelic football was when someone showed me a YouTube video," she says. "My reaction was, 'What is this sport? This is insane!'"

"But at the same time, I thought it looked really fun, and I felt: 'I want to try this, I think I could play it.'

Her instincts were right. Growing up in Tokyo, where schools often have extensive sports programs, Naoko was a natural athlete who excelled in soccer, basketball and volleyball. She felt that Gaelic football combined the skills she had learned there.

Shortly after that YouTube tutorial in 2017, Naoko headed to a Japan GAA training session. One month later, she was thrown into action at the Asian Championships in Bangkok where she won a Most Valuable Player (MVP) award.

Naturally enough, she was hooked. Over the next few years, she immersed herself in the small but passionate Japan GAA scene, and ultimately served as chairperson of the club in 2022. One of the first things she did after moving to Berlin in 2023 was to join Berlin GAA.

"What I love most about the GAA is that it's not just a sports team," she says. "It's a strong and well-developed community. Being part of the GAA has truly enriched my life. You can make friends all over the world."

A veteran of two World Games representing Asia, she is now looking forward to representing Europe at the event and indeed, to returning to what she now calls her "second home" of Ireland.

Before discovering Gaelic Football, Naoko didn't even know where Ireland was. The extent of her knowledge was that the Guinness Book of Records was named after an Irish drink.

Now she is married to an Irishman, whom she met through the GAA. "Just by playing Gaelic football, you can instantly connect with Irish people," she says.

For her Berlin clubmate Sophia Garlick Bock, a Sydney native, the route to Gaelic football was also smoothed through a love of other sports and a desire to apply those skills to a new one.

She played AFL in Australia and joined the local Berlin Crocodiles club when she moved to the city a few years ago. The GAA and AFL clubs in Berlin have very close ties and Sophia's new teammates soon introduced her to Gaelic football.

"I'd never even seen it before I got to Berlin," she says. "I just knew it was with a circular ball and that those players who played Gaelic football were absolute guns on the AFL field. They were so quick and they just had like very different skills, but very adaptable skills."

Although she is Australian, she will represent the German team at the World Games, as eligibility to open to non-Irish players living in Germany or with connections to the country.

"To have this opportunity that you could go and play for the country that you're living in, but also to play against people from all around the world, that is such a unique and awesome experience," she says. "I was like: 'I need to be a part of this.'"

Like her clubmates, Sophia – despite having no previous connection to Ireland – now feels an affiliation to the country through the sport. The World Games will be her first trip.

"I feel so lucky to have met so many amazing Irish people because of the sport," she says. She recently attended an Irish film festival in Berlin with clubmates, an unexpected cultural bonus tied in with being a Gaelic footballer. "Just getting to see these Irish classics was great!"

Above all else, Sophia, Naoko and Clem love the sport and feel it gave them an opportunity to apply their other sporting skills without high pressure or expectations.

Sophia believes a lot of young women had negative experiences in sport during and after puberty. "There's a huge decrease in playing sport at this age in many countries," she says.

She thinks the open culture of GAA clubs abroad, such as Berlin GAA, provide a platform for female athletes to kickstart their sporting careers and lives.

"Maybe because we have all had these sort of experiences, there is a bit more of an open culture," she says. "Maybe the skill level for entry is not as high, or the barriers don't feel as high because there's so many new people who are always coming."

The World Games offers players like Clem, Naoko and Sophia the chance to showcase and celebrate the strides they have made. Their story – and the story of Berlin GAA as a whole – also provides a striking example of just how international and multicultural the GAA has and could yet become.