Yuri van Gelder (born 20 April 1983) is a Dutch

gymnast Gymnastics is a group of sport that includes physical exercises requiring balance, strength, flexibility, agility, coordination, artistry and endurance. The movements involved in gymnastics contribute to the development of the arms, legs, sh ...

, whose best discipline is the rings. His nickname is "Lord of the Rings".

Career

Born in

Waalwijk Waalwijk () is a Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality and a city in the southern Netherlands. It had a population of in and is located near the A59 and N261 motorways. The villages of Capelle, Vrijhoeve-Capelle, Sprang (the former mun ...

Netherlands , Terminology of the Low Countries, informally Holland, is a country in Northwestern Europe, with Caribbean Netherlands, overseas territories in the Caribbean. It is the largest of the four constituent countries of the Kingdom of the Nether ...

, Van Gelder took the gold in the men's rings at the 2005 European Championships held in

Debrecen Debrecen ( ; ; ; ) is Hungary's cities of Hungary, second-largest city, after Budapest, the regional centre of the Northern Great Plain Regions of Hungary, region and the seat of Hajdú-Bihar County. A city with county rights, it was the large ...

Hungary Hungary is a landlocked country in Central Europe. Spanning much of the Pannonian Basin, Carpathian Basin, it is bordered by Slovakia to the north, Ukraine to the northeast, Romania to the east and southeast, Serbia to the south, Croatia and ...

. He became world champion in the same discipline at the

2005 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 38th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Rod Laver Arena in Melbourne, Australia from 21 to 27 November 2005. Only the individual all-around and event finals were contested at this meet. There was no team competition; nat ...

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

Australia Australia, officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country comprising mainland Australia, the mainland of the Australia (continent), Australian continent, the island of Tasmania and list of islands of Australia, numerous smaller isl ...

. He won bronze at the

2006 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 39th World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Aarhus, Denmark, from October 13 to October 21, 2006. The Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique, International Gymnastics Federation, which celebrated its 125th anniversary in 20 ...

Aarhus Aarhus (, , ; officially spelled Århus from 1948 until 1 January 2011) is the second-largest city in Denmark and the seat of Aarhus municipality, Aarhus Municipality. It is located on the eastern shore of Jutland in the Kattegat sea and app ...

Denmark Denmark is a Nordic countries, Nordic country in Northern Europe. It is the metropole and most populous constituent of the Kingdom of Denmark,, . also known as the Danish Realm, a constitutionally unitary state that includes the Autonomous a ...

. At the

2007 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 40th World Gymnastics Championships#Artistic, World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held at the Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle in Stuttgart, Germany, from 1 to 9 September 2007. Medal summary Men's results Qualification Oldest and ...

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; ; Swabian German, Swabian: ; Alemannic German, Alemannic: ; Italian language, Italian: ; ) is the capital city, capital and List of cities in Baden-Württemberg by population, largest city of the States of Germany, German state of ...

Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...

, he won a silver medal.

Suspension

On 13 July 2009 he revealed that he used

cocaine Cocaine is a tropane alkaloid and central nervous system stimulant, derived primarily from the leaves of two South American coca plants, ''Erythroxylum coca'' and ''Erythroxylum novogranatense, E. novogranatense'', which are cultivated a ...

three days before the Dutch championships in Rotterdam. Van Gelder said he very much regretted his "lapse" and called himself "incredibly stupid". He has since had to return his national championship gold medal, and was suspended by the Dutch Gymnastics Union. IOC regulations implied that because of the suspension he would not be admitted to the Olympic Games in 2012. He was also fired from his job with the Dutch military, which has a 'zero tolerance' drugs policy. He was pulled out of the 2010 Worlds a few days before start, with the team citing personal medical reasons and refusing to answer questions about drugs. In 2011, there was an appeal, by

LaShawn Merritt LaShawn Merritt (born June 27, 1986) is a retired American track and field athlete who competed in sprinting events, specializing in the 400 metres. He is a former Summer Olympics, Olympic champion over the distance and his personal best of 43.65 ...

, at the CAS against the general rule that after a suspension the athlete is not allowed to participate in the next Olympic Games. The appeal was granted and thereby Van Gelder still had a chance to qualify. For this, he had to achieve a good result at the

2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships The 2011 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships were held in Tokyo, Japan, from October 7–16, 2011, at the Tokyo Metropolitan Gymnasium. Due to uncertainty over the nuclear situation following the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake and tsunami, the Féd� ...

, but he was unsuccessful.

2016 Olympic Games

At the

2016 Summer Olympics The 2016 Summer Olympics (), officially the Games of the XXXI Olympiad () and officially branded as Rio 2016, were an international multi-sport event held from 5 to 21 August 2016 in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, with preliminary events i ...

, he reached the finals on rings. On 8 August 2016 (one week before the finals), he was dismissed from the Dutch team as a disciplinary measure, because against team rules he had not returned to the Olympic Village until early the next morning after consuming alcohol off-premises. As a variation on his nickname "lord of the rings", the Dutch media immediately referred to Van Gelder as "lord of the drinks". A request for a preliminary injunction requiring that the National Olympic Committee would attempt to reinstate Van Gelder's position in the finals was rejected., Court of Gelderland, 12 August 2016

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Gelder, Yuri Van 1983 births Living people Dutch male artistic gymnasts World champion gymnasts Medalists at the World Artistic Gymnastics Championships European champions in gymnastics Sportspeople from Waalwijk Doping cases in gymnastics Dutch sportspeople in doping cases Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for the Netherlands 20th-century Dutch people 21st-century Dutch sportsmen