| DATE OF BIRTH: |
24-10-1987
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| ACHIEVEMENT RANKING: |
2.747
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AAGJE VANWALLEGHEM BIOGRAPHY
Early years
Aagje was born in a little village in Brazil at october 24, 1987. When she was only 2 months old she was adopted and came to Belgium. Aagje started gymnastics at age 5 at the club “steeds hoger wevelgem”. Besides the gym classes Aagje also participated in ballet classes en jazz dance and she was playing the violin (and after a while also piano and drums). Little Aagje was a real dare-devil. At age 6 she participated at her first tumbling meet.
Her club “steeds hoger wevelgem” didn’t have a proper gymnastics accommodation and also not the possibility to make more hours of training. Aagje decided to follow extra gym classes in Brugge and Brussels and she got conditioning classes at school. In 1999 aagje is allowed to train in Ghent where she is able to combine gymnastics with her school. But aagje decided to move to the Netherlands. When she was 11 years old she moved to a guest family and trained at the club K&V Opmeer where Gerrit Beltman was her coach. In Belgium Aagje was only training 10 hours a week but this became 31 hours at her new gym, where she practiced together with Renske Endel. Physical as emotionally it was a though year. But Beltman his Trainings regime paid off. Aagje made a remarkable progression. In September 2000 Gerrit Beltman was chosen to be the head coach of the Vlaamse gymnastics Union and Aagje moved to Ghent to keep on training with him.
International breakthrough
In 2001 Aagje had her big breakthrough during the European Youth Olympic Games in Murcia. Surrounded by the big gymnastics countries Aagje became 7th AA and finished 2nd at the uneven bars. She begins to dream about the Olympics. For a while everything was insecure because Aagje suffered an unknown hip problem. For a full year she could only practice the uneven bars. At the junior Europeans in 2001 Aagje could only compete at the uneven bars. As sudden as the pain in her hip appeared, as sudden it was gone and Aagje was able to train the other events again. Just in time to prepare for the 2003 World Championships in Anaheim. Aagje finished 21st in the all around and she earned an olympic nomination.
Athens her I come!
This is another though year for Aagje. She has more hours of training and there are a lot of meets and practicals. She went to Deva for three weeks where she trained with the Romanian national team and she met Octavian Belu. Just before Aagje traveled to Athens she suffered from a stress fracture. Still she decided to go to the Olympics. Aagje had an excellent game and qualified with the 24 best gymnasts in the world for the AA final. In the final she felt intimidated because of the big gymnastics stars she is challenging against. She became 23rd and with this result she is the best female gymnast ever from Belgium. Aagje became famous in her home country. She enjoyed the attention she got. A new world has opened.
European Bronze
Back in Belgium its hard for Aagje to continue her hours of training. Because there are no girls from the same age left in Ghent Aagje decided to go to Texas for 6 weeks where she trained at the same club as current Olympic champion Carly Patterson. When she came back to Ghent she got a new trainer Laurens van der Hout and she is focusing at the 2005 europeans in Debrecen. During qualifications Aagje was not able to reach her usual level and she just qualified for the AA. During the finals she proved what she’s worth and ranked 6th AA and 3rd at vault.
Injured in 2006 and 2007
After a sprained ankle aagje made her comeback at the 2006 world championships in Aarhus. Mentally she is stronger than she is ever been. She found a new goal in the Olympics 2008. Aagje trained hard to reach her goal but she injured herself again. This time it’s her knee. For a while it was unthinkable for her to participate at the 2007 World championships. It was a miracle aagjes revalidation went so fast. Together with Stephanie van Meerbeeck and Gael Mys Aagje traveled to Stuttgart. Aagje had a good qualification and she was happy with her results but Gael scored just a little higher and she will go to the Olympics 2008 instead of Aagje. It was a Hughes disappointment but Aagje continued training.