Nina Derwael is a Belgianartistic gymnast and Olympian. She is the 2018 and 2019 World champion and a two-time European champion on the uneven bars as well as a two-time Belgian national all-around champion. She is the first Belgian gymnast to become a world champion.
Career
2016
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.
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 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. 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. She placed fourth on balance beam to conclude a historic performance for Belgium.
2019
Derwael competed at the Doha World Cup in March where she qualified to the uneven bar and balance beam finals in first place. In event finals she won gold ahead of Fan Yilin of China and Anastasia Ilyankova of Russia. 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. 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 respectively. During the uneven bars final she fell on her signature move and finished fourth. Shortly after she competed at the balance beam finals and won gold. 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. During the uneven bars final Derwael scored 15.233, earning the gold medal and retaining her World title on the uneven bars. 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.
