Sanne Wevers


Sanne Wevers is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She has competed internationally as a senior since 2007, primarily as a balance beam and uneven bars specialist. Wevers is the 2016 Olympic and 2018 European champion on balance beam and was the first Dutch female gymnast to become an individual Olympic champion. She is also the 2015 World silver medalist on balance beam and the 2015 European bronze medalist on uneven bars.

Early life and training

Wevers was born on 17 September 1991, in Leeuwarden. She is six minutes older than her fraternal twin, Lieke. They are both members of the Dutch national gymnastics team and are coached by their father, Vincent Wevers.
In 1992, Wevers and her family moved to Oldenzaal. When she was 12, she and her sister started training with their father at a local club in Dronrijp. The family later moved to Twente, and the twins started training at Topturnen Oost-Nederland. Her parents helped turn it into a high-level sports facility called BosanTON.
In 2013, Vincent Wevers had an argument with the management of the facility and was fired. Ultimately, the twins moved with their father to Heerenveen to train, while their mother stayed in Oldenzaal.

Senior career

2007–2008

Wevers made her international debut in 2007 at the Ghent World Cup, where she placed seventh on uneven bars. She also placed eighth on balance beam at the Glasgow Grand Prix. She competed on bars, beam, and floor at the 2007 European Championships, but did not qualify for any event finals.
Wevers began the 2008 Olympic season at the European Championships. She scored 14.975 on beam, contributing to the Netherlands' eighth-place finish in the team finals. She finished eighth on beam at the Cottbus World Cup, and won silver on beam at the Maribor World Cup. At the World Cup in Tianjin, she finished seventh on balance beam.
At the Dutch national championships, Wevers finished second in the all-around, fifth on bars, and second on beam and floor. The Netherlands could only send one athlete to the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Suzanne Harmes was chosen instead of Wevers.
At the Glasgow Grand Prix, Wevers placed seventh on floor and won gold on both bars and beam. She finished 2008 by placing sixth on bars and fourth on beam at the Stuttgart DTB Cup.

2009–2012

Wevers placed fourth on beam at the 2009 Moscow World Stars, but sustained an elbow injury and did not compete for the rest of the year. In 2010, she competed at the 2010 European Championships and contributed a 13.025 on beam toward the Netherlands' seventh-place finish. She was selected to compete at the 2010 World Championships, where the Netherlands finished ninth in qualifications, one spot away from the team final. On beam at the World Championships, Wevers successfully performed a new artistic element, a double full turn with free leg at horizontal, and the skill was named after her.
She had shoulder surgery soon after the World Championships, and later sustained a foot injury that kept her out of contention for the 2012 Summer Olympics. Wevers returned to competition at the Ostrava World Cup in 2012, where she won silver on beam.

2013–2015

In 2013, Wevers won gold on beam at the Osijek World Cup and was named to the Dutch team for the 2013 World Championships. At Worlds, she fell on balance beam in qualifications and did not advance to the final.
In June 2014, she competed at the Dutch Nationals, winning gold on beam and silver on bars, and placing ninth in the all-around. She then competed at the 2014 European Championships, where the Dutch team finished ninth. At the 2014 World Championships, the Netherlands finished tenth, qualifying a full team to the 2015 World Championships.
In 2015, Wevers competed at the Ljubljana World Cup in April, where a fall on balance beam landed her in fourth place. At the European Championships, she qualified to the uneven bars and balance beam finals. She won a bronze on bars, but fell on one of her spins on beam and finished her routine well over her allotted 90 seconds. She finished eighth.
At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Wevers helped the Netherlands finish eighth in the team competition. Individually, she won the silver medal on balance beam. Wevers calculated her own difficulty score in a notebook immediately after finishing her routine, and when it was inconsistent with the judges' score her coach filed an inquiry on her behalf, which was accepted.

2016

In 2016, Wevers upgraded the difficulty score of her beam routine by seven-tenths and won gold at the Olympic Test Event. She then became the Dutch national champion on beam with a score of 15.650.
In July, Wevers was named to the Dutch team for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and her sister Lieke also made the team. In qualifications on 7 August, Wevers scored 14.408 on uneven bars and 15.066 on balance beam, advancing to the final in fourth place. On 15 August, she won the gold medal in the balance beam final with a score of 15.466, outscoring Americans Laurie Hernandez and Simone Biles, who won silver and bronze. This was the first time a Dutch woman won an individual medal in artistic gymnastics, the second time a Dutch woman won a medal in artistic gymnastics after the Dutch team won gold at their home Olympics in 1928, and the second time a Dutch gymnast won an individual medal, following Epke Zonderland's win on the horizontal bar at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Wevers was selected to be the country's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies.

2017

After the Olympics, Wevers returned to competition in February 2017 at the Melbourne World Cup. She finished second on balance beam behind Chinese gymnast Liu Tingting. She was chosen to represent the Netherlands at the European Championships in Cluj alongside Eythora Thorsdottir, Tisha Volleman, and Kristen Polderman. Wevers qualified for the balance beam final and finished in fifth place.
Wevers competed at the 2017 World Championships but did not qualify to the beam final due to missing a required backwards acrobatic element in her routine, an automatic 0.5 point deduction from her D-score, in qualifications.

2018

Wevers competed at the 2018 Dutch Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she placed first on balance beam and fifth on uneven bars. On 7–8 July she competed at the Heerenveen Friendly where she placed first on balance, second in the team final, and fourth on uneven bars. She was selected to compete at the European Championships in Glasgow alongside Tisha Volleman and 2016 Olympic teammates Vera Van Pol, Eythora Thorsdottir, and Celine Van Gerner. Wevers competed on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualification, helping the Dutch team qualify to the team final as well as qualifying individually on the balance beam. In the team finals she once again competed on both bars and beam. She improved upon her scores from the qualifications, receiving the highest score of the day on Beam, a 13.7. Her scores helped the Dutch team secure a bronze medal. In event finals she placed first on balance beam, winning her first ever European Championships gold medal.
Wevers was later named to the team to compete at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Vera van Pol, Kirsten Polderman, Naomi Visser, Tisha Volleman, and alternate Sanna Veerman. During 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Wevers qualified to the balance beam final in fourth place, but fell off the beam on her acrobatic series in the final to finish seventh.

2019

In February 2019, Wevers announced that she would spend the majority of the year recovering from leg and hip injuries and would likely miss the 2019 European Championships in Szczecin, Poland but hopes to recover in time for the 2019 World Championships.
Wevers made her return to competition at the Second Heerenveen Friendly in September where she helped the Netherlands place first. Individually she recorded the third highest balance beam score behind Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland and compatriot Naomi Visser.
Wevers competed at the 2019 World Championships alongside Eythora Thorsdottir, Lieke Wevers, Tisha Volleman, and Naomi Visser. They qualified to the team final in sixth place, and as a result qualified a team to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the team final Wevers contributed scores on uneven bars and balance beam towards the Netherlands eighth place finish.

Eponymous skills

Competitive history

YearEventTeamAAVTUBBBFX
2007Ghent World Cup7
2007Glasgow Grand Prix8
2008-------
2008European Championships8
2008Cottbus World Cup8
2008Maribor World Cup
2008Tianjin World Cup7
2008National Championships5
2008Glasgow World Cup7
2008Stuttgart World Cup64
2009Moscow World Cup4
2010-------
2010European Championships7
2012Ostrava World Cup
2013Turnen Dames Interland4
2013Osijek World Cup
2014National Championships9
2015Ljubljana World Cup4
2015European Championships8
2015National Championships
2015World Championships8
2016Cottbus World Cup8
2016Olympic Test Event
2016National Championships
2016Olympic Games7
2017Melbourne World Cup
2017European Championships5
2017Paris Challenge Cup5
2017Cottbus World Cup45
2017Toyota International5
2018Dutch Championships5
2018Heerenveen Friendly4
2018European Championships
2018World Championships7
20192nd Heerenveen Friendly
2019World Championships8