WE'RE OFF TO THE PARIS OLYMPICS : GYMNASTICS
In the run up to the Olympic Games, each week we'll be presenting the athletes who will have the privilege of competing for Belgium in Paris between 26 July and 11 August 2024. We will present them discipline by discipline... Today, we're putting the spotlight on our twirling gymnasts!
In artistic gymnastics, all athletes selected for the Paris 2024 Olympic Games can take part in qualifications on all apparatus, meaning they can qualify for all of the individual finals as well as the individual all-around final.
- Maellyse Brassart (Individual All-around) is a young woman from Uccle (Brussels region) who has already taken part in five world championships, as well as the last edition of the Olympic Games.
- Luka Van den Keybus (Individual All-Around): Born on 14 April 1997, this native of Lokeren (in the province of East Flanders) is the captain of the national gymnastics team. His best performance came at the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan. Placing 16th in the all-around final with a score of 81.265, he achieved the best result for a Belgian in the history of the world championships.
- Noah Kuavita (parallel bars) is a 24-year-old gymnast from Antwerp who achieved a great result on the parallel bars at the 2023 World Championships held in Antwerp, earning him a spot at the 2024 Olympic Games.
- Nina Derwael (beam) is the real star of the Belgian gymnastics team. Now aged 24, this native of Sint-Truiden (Limburg province) already has an impressive track record. She was crowned European champion in 2017 and 2018 and world champion in 2018 and 2019 on the uneven bars, her preferred apparatus, becoming the first Belgian gymnast to win major titles. In 2021, she won gold at the Tokyo Olympic Games, bringing Belgium its first-ever Olympic medal in artistic gymnastics.