Lisa Vaelen (born 10 August 2004) is a Belgian

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different types of apparatus. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which assigns the '' Code of Points'' used ...

. She is the 2023 European vault bronze medalist. She represented Belgium at the 2020 Summer Olympics.

Junior career

2016-2017

At the 2016 Belgian Championships, Vaelen swept the gold medals on every event and in the all-around in the Junior A-12 Division. She then made her international debut at the 2016 Gymnova Cup and won the gold medal in the all-around in the Espoir division. At the 2017

WOGA Classic The World Olympic Gymnastics Academy (WOGA) is a two-facility gymnastics club located in Frisco and Plano. In 1994, WOGA was established by Yevgeny Marchenko, a World Sports acrobatic champion who guided Carly Patterson to her gold medal, an ...

, Vaelen finished sixth in the all-around and placed eighth with the Belgian team. She then competed at the Belgian Championships and won the bronze medal in the all-around. Then at the 2017 Gymnova Cup, she won the silver medal in the all-around and on vault and

balance beam The balance beam is a rectangular artistic gymnastics apparatus and an event performed using the apparatus. The apparatus and the event are sometimes simply called "beam". The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is BB. The bal ...

, and she won the bronze medal on the

floor exercise In gymnastics, the floor is a specially prepared exercise surface, considered an apparatus. The floor exercise (English abbreviation FX) is the event performed on the floor, in both women's and men's artistic gymnastics (WAG and MAG). The same flo ...

. Her final meet of the 2017 season was the Top Gym Tournament where she placed eighth in the all-around and on vault, and she finished fifteenth on the

uneven bars The uneven bars or asymmetric bars is an artistic gymnastics apparatus. It is made of a steel frame. The bars are made of fiberglass with wood coating, or less commonly wood. The English abbreviation for the event in gymnastics scoring is UB or ...

2018

Vaelen returned to the WOGA Classic, this time placing twelfth in the all-around. She then competed at the International GymSport and won the gold medal in the all-around. Then at the Belgian Championships, she won the bronze medal in the all-around behind Fien Enghels and Margaux Daveloose. She competed as a guest at the Dutch Championships and won the gold medal in the all-around. She then competed at the Heerenveen Friendly where the Belgian team finished second behind the Netherlands, and Vaelen placed fifth in the all-around. In August, she withdrew from the Junior European Championships due to a leg injury. She returned to competition in November at the Gymnova Cup and won the gold medal in the all-around. Her final meet of the season was the Top Gym Tournament where she won the gold medal in the all-around.

2019

Vaelen once again began her season at the WOGA Classic, and she finished sixth in the all-around. Her next competition was the

City of Jesolo Trophy The City of Jesolo Trophy is an annual women's gymnastics competition held in Jesolo, Jesolo, Italy. There are competitions for the senior division and junior division. The United States won the senior team competition from 2008, 2010 to 2017, 2019 ...

where the Belgian team won the bronze medal behind Russia and the United States, and she finished nineteenth in the all-around. She then won the gold medal in the all-around at the International GymSport. At the Belgian Championships, she won the bronze medal in the all-around. She then competed at the FIT Challenge and helped Belgium win the team gold medal. Vaelen competed at the inaugural 2019 Junior World Championships alongside

Stacy Bertrandt Stacy or Stacey may refer to: Places In the United States: * Stacy, California, an unincorporated community * Stacy, Kentucky * Stacy, Minnesota, a city * Stacy, Virginia, a village People * Stacy (given name) * Stacy (Malaysian singer) ( ...

and Noémie Louon, and they finished fifth in the team competition.

Senior career

2020-2021

Vaelen made her senior debut at the 2020 L'International Gymnix in

Montreal Montreal is the List of towns in Quebec, largest city in the Provinces and territories of Canada, province of Quebec, the List of the largest municipalities in Canada by population, second-largest in Canada, and the List of North American cit ...

where she helped the Belgian team win the silver medal behind the United States. However, this was her only competition of the season due to the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. At the 2021 Osijek Challenge Cup, Vaelen won the bronze medal on the

behind

Nina Derwael Nina Derwael ( ; born 26 March 2000) is a Belgian artistic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic champion, a two-time World champion (2018, 2019), and a three-time European champion (2017, 2018 & 2025) on the uneven bars. She also is the 2019 Europ ...

and Zsofia Kovacs. She then competed at the FIT Challenge and helped Belgium win the team silver medal behind France. She was selected to represent Belgium at the 2020 Summer Olympics alongside Nina Derwael, Maellyse Brassart, and Jutta Verkest. She competed on the vault, uneven bars, and floor exercise in the team final where the team finished eighth.

2022

In August, Vaelen competed at the

European Championships A European Championship is the top level international sports competition between European athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. In the plural, the European Championships also refers t ...

Munich Munich is the capital and most populous city of Bavaria, Germany. As of 30 November 2024, its population was 1,604,384, making it the third-largest city in Germany after Berlin and Hamburg. Munich is the largest city in Germany that is no ...

, where she contributed to Belgium's fifth-place finish in the team final. Individually, she placed fifth in the all-around, and finished fourth in the vault final behind Zsófia Kovács, Asia D'Amato and

Aline Friess Aline Friess (born 5 July 2003) is a French artistic gymnast. She competed with the French teams at the 2019 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, 2019 World Championships, the 2020 Summer Olympics, the 2022 World Artistic Gymnastics Champions ...

with a total score of 13.583.

2023

In April, Lisa competed at the 2023 European Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she won the bronze medal on vault. She also ended up 4th in the All Around final, 7th with the team and on uneven bars. Few months later, she was diagnosed with mononucleosis and had to stop training for several months. She returned to training in March 2024.

Competitive history

References

External links

* * * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Vaelen, Lisa 2004 births Living people Belgian female artistic gymnasts Olympic gymnasts for Belgium Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Sportspeople from Bonheiden 21st-century Belgian sportswomen