Belgium’s road to Olympic gold: gymnastics
At the last Olympics in Tokyo, Belgium had its most successful Games since 1948, with a total of seven medals. This year's Paris Olympics could be even better, with plenty of Belgian candidates in the running for a medal. Today, Belga English looks at gymnastics.
Belgium is enjoying unprecedented success in gymnastics thanks to Nina Derwael. Since her Olympic debut in 2016, the uneven bars specialist has become a two-time world and European champion. At the Tokyo Games, she was the first Belgian to win a medal in gymnastics when she won gold on the uneven bars.
However, the chances of another gold medal seem slimmer this time around. First of all, at 24, Derwael is nearing the end of the average gymnastics career, and will find it harder to compete with the upcoming teenage talent.
Injury struggles
Second, she has struggled with several injuries in the past few years. After the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she missed an entire season due to a knee injury. In 2023, she lost another six months due to a shoulder injury. She fought her way back to competition, but her best form could be out of reach.
Her spotty results since Tokyo confirm this. Recuperation from her knee injury went well, culminating in a bronze medal at the 2022 World Championships in London. Her shoulder injury is another matter - they often mean the end of a gymnast’s career.
While Derwael has made a tremendous effort getting back into shape, her results in May’s European Championships show that another Olympic medal might be out of reach. She fell multiple times and did not reach the final.
No coach
Another concern is the fact that the women’s gymnastics team does not have a coach. Marjorie Heuls and Yves Kieffer, who led Derwael to Olympic gold, were dismissed by the Belgian Gymnastics Federation late last year, due to transgressive psychological behaviour.
The situation caused a rift in the team, but Derwael always objected to the dismissal. “Without them, I would not have performed in Tokyo,” she says in a recent documentary by VRT. “This was not the time to change coaches."
Despite the many setbacks, Derwael remains ambitious. “My goal is the final,” she said at a press conference in June. “And then anything is possible.”
#FlandersNewsService | © PHOTO KHALED DESOUKI / AFP
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