Lieke Wevers

Lieke Wevers
— Gymnast ♀ —
Country represented	Netherlands
Born	September 17, 1991 Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands
Height	1.67 m (5 ft 6 in)[1]
Weight	54 kg (119 lb)[2]
Discipline	Women's artistic gymnastics
Years on national team	2009 - present
Club	Bosan Ton Almelo
Head coach(es)	Vincent Wevers
Medal record Competitor for  Netherlands European Games 2015 Baku Balance Beam 2015 Baku Team 2015 Baku All-Around 2015 Baku Floor Exercise

Lieke Wevers (born September 17, 1991 in Leeuwarden) is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She is the first Dutch female gymnast to win a European title. At the 2015 European Games, she won the gold medal on the balance beam and was the bronze medallist with the Dutch team, in the floor exercise and in the individual all-around final.^[2]

Personal life

Lieke is six minutes younger than her fraternal twin, Sanne.^[3] They are both members of the Dutch national team, and they are both coached by their father, Vincent.^[4] Since 2009 she has a boyfriend called Yasin. Lieke is studying psychology and speaks Dutch, English, German, and French.^[2]

Training and family

In 1992 Wevers together with her family moved to Oldenzaal. Her parents were gymnastics coaches. She was not forced to do gymnastics and also tried other things. When she was twelve years old, she and her sister Sanne started training with their father at the local club in Dronrijp. To reach a higher level in gymnastics the family moved to Twente, where they started training at Quick in Oldenzaal and later at Topturnen Oost-Nederland (TON; Top gymnastics Eastern-Netherlands). Her parents were fully involved and made it a high level sports facility called BosanTON. From 2005, however, her mother took a full-time job. In 2013 her father had an argument with the management and got fired by the club he built up. Lieke and her sister could still train together at the club. They got permission that their father could train them on a private basis in Arnhem. But later their father was no longer allowed to be in the hall, and Lieke and Sanne could only train there once per day. They were forced to train in a small training hall next door. Finally Lieke, Sanne and their father moved to Heerenveen to have a proper training location, and their mother stayed in Oldenzaal.

Career

Lieke's international debut was the 2009 Cottbus World Cup where she won silver on beam behind Marta Pihan-Kulesza,^[5] and she finished 8th on bars.^[6] That same year, she won gold on beam at the Moscow World Stars.^[7] However, at the 2009 European Championships Lieke tore her ACL, and she did not compete for another two years.^[4] She made her comeback to competition at the 2011 World Championships. In the qualification round, she competed on bars, beam, and floor^[8] to help the Dutch team finish in thirteenth. This result qualified them for the Olympic test event and it meant that the Netherlands still had a chance to qualify a full team for the Olympics. Lieke competed at the Olympic test event for the Netherlands, but they finished in 8th and did not qualify for the Olympics.^[9][10] After the Olympic Test Event, Lieke had to have surgery on both of her wrists.^[4]

Lieke returned to competition in 2014. She competed at the 2014 European Championships with her sister, and they helped the Netherlands finish 9th.^[11] At the Dutch National Championships, she finished 11th in the all-around and 5th on beam.^[12] At the 2014 World Championships, Lieke helped the Dutch team finish 10th.^[13] At the 2015 European Games, she won a gold medal on the balance beam and bronze medals with the Dutch team, in the all-around, and on floor exercise.^[2]

At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Wevers helped the Netherlands finish 8th in the team competition. Individually, she was 13th in the all-around and 8th on floor exercise.

References

1. "This is Lieke". Gymnastics with Sanne & Lieke. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
2. "Athletes - Lieke WEVERS". Baku 2015 1st European Games. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
3. "History". Gymnastics with Sanne and Lieke. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
4. Turner, Amanda (12 May 2014). "IG Online Interview: Lieke and Sanne Wevers (Netherlands)". International Gymnast Magazine Online. International Gymnast Magazine. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
5. "Results Balance Beam Finale 2009 Cottbus World Cup" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 22 March 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
6. "Results Uneven Bars Finale 2009 Cottbus World Cup" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 21 March 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
7. "Moscow 2009 Results Beam" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 30 May 2009. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
8. "All-Around Results Women's Qualification" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 7 October 2011. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
9. "Gymnastics Artistic Women Qualification Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 11 January 2012. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
10. Rocha, Felipe (11 January 2012). "Equipe feminina de ginástica se recupera de fiascos recentes e se classifica para a Olimpíada". UOL 2012 Olympics (in Portuguese). Retrieved 18 June 2015.
11. "30th European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Team Championships Seniors Qualifications for CIII & CIV" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 15 May 2015. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
12. "Wedstrijduitslag meerkamp" (PDF). Gymnastics Results (in Dutch). 21 June 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2015.
13. "Women's Qualification Team Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 18 June 2015.