Nina Derwael

Derwael became a senior gymnast in 2016. At the 2016 European Championships, she just missed out on competing in the team final after the Belgian squad placed ninth in qualifications. She represented her country at the 2016 Summer Olympics where she competed in the all-around final and placed nineteenth.

Derwael found greater success in the 2017-2020 quadrennium. In 2017, she became the first Belgian female gymnast to win a gold medal in the European Artistic Gymnastics Championships by winning the uneven bars final.[6] At the 2017 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, she placed third on the uneven bars behind defending world champion Fan Yilin of China and first-year senior Elena Eremina of Russia.[7] This made her the first Belgian female gymnast to medal at the world championships in history. At these world championships, she and Georgia-Mae Fenton of Great Britain successfully competed a difficult original skill (Stalder to Tkatchev with 1/2 turn), after which it was named after both of them in the code of points.[8] She also placed eighth in the all-around competition.

In 2018, Derwael continued to dominate on the uneven bars, while also showing greater all-around potential. She regained the Belgian national all-around title and medalled on every event individually in March. She later debuted a challenging Nabieva (toe-on laid out tkatchev release) which replaced the Ricna as the new opening of her routine. At the 2018 European Championships, Derwael qualified in second place to the uneven bars final behind 2013 European runner-up Jonna Adlerteg of Sweden, and surprised many by qualifying in first to the balance beam final. Additionally, the Belgium team qualified in third place to the team final but withdrew to prevent injuries to any team members. In event finals, she successfully defended her European title on uneven bars by placing ahead of Adlerteg and Russian national bars champion Angelina Melnikova. She then won the silver medal on balance beam behind reigning Olympic Champion Sanne Wevers of the Netherlands.

Derwael led the Belgian team at the 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Doha, Qatar at the end of October. Individually, she qualified to the all-around, uneven bars, and balance beam finals. In the all-around, strong performances on her specialty events resulted in a fourth-place finish, the highest all-around placement in Belgian history. She scored less than a tenth of a point behind silver medalist Mai Murakami of Japan.[9] She entered the uneven bars final as the favorite for the gold medal given her recent European title and the absence of reigning champion Fan Yilin. She delivered an exceptional routine in the final to score 15.200, winning the title by half a point over American Simone Biles while recording both the highest difficulty and execution scores in the final. By doing so, she became the first Belgian gymnast to ever win a world gold medal, making her one of the most successful Belgian gymnasts in history.[10][11] She placed fourth on balance beam to conclude a historic performance for Belgium.

Derwael competed at the Doha World Cup in March where she qualified to the uneven bar and balance beam finals in first place.[12] In event finals she won gold ahead of Fan Yilin of China and Anastasia Ilyankova of Russia.[13] In April Derwael announced that she would forgo competing at the 2019 European Championships in order to focus on helping Belgium qualify a team to the 2020 Olympics at the 2019 World Championships.[14]

In June Derwael competed at the European Games. During qualifications she only competed on balance beam and uneven bars. She qualified to both event finals in first and second (behind Becky Downie of Great Britain) respectively. During the uneven bars final she fell on her signature move and finished fourth. Shortly after she competed in the balance beam final and won gold.[15]

In October Derwael competed at the 2019 World Championships in Stuttgart. During qualifications she helped Belgium finish in tenth place; while they didn't qualify for the team final, they did qualify as a team for the 2020 Olympics Games in Tokyo. Individually Derwael qualified for the all-around, uneven bars, and floor exercise finals. During the all-around final she finished in fifth place but received the highest uneven bars score of the day.[16] During the uneven bars final Derwael scored 15.233, earning the gold medal and retaining her World title on the uneven bars. Derwael became the fifth woman in World Championships history to successfully defend her uneven bars title after Maxi Gnauck, Daniela Silivaș, Svetlana Khorkina, and Fan Yilin. Afterwards, she withdrew from the floor exercise final, citing her previous foot injuries and wishing to remain healthy in the lead up to the Olympics.[17]

In February it was announced that Derwael would represent Belgium at the Tokyo World Cup taking place on April 4.[18] The Tokyo World Cup was later canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic in Japan.[19]