The Team is the Reward

How YAKA won gold!

YAKA at the XEUCF 2021 Final. Photo by Raf Celis.

The hardest thing in any sport is the final step from being good to being great. YAKA, a women’s team from Noisy-le-Sec, a suburb of Paris, has been good for many years and has been in the mix at the end of European championships for over a decade. They first made quarterfinals in 2009, and made quarterfinals again 2010, 2013 and 2016.

YAKA has been around since 2005 and in recent years have become a European power, reaching European semifinals in 2017 and 2019.1 The final step, a place in the final, had to this point eluded them. How did they make the last jump not only to the finals but to a gold medal finish?


  1. The team skipped EUCF in 2018 after focusing on WUCC in Cincinnati. 

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  1. Sean Colfer
    Sean Colfer

    Sean Colfer is based in London. He’s played for teams across the UK since 2006 and has been writing about and commentating on ultimate since 2010. Follow him on Twitter @seancolfer, or follow @ShowGameUlti on Instagram for more on UK and Irish ultimate.

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