The rest of the Dutch gymnasts stand with their arms folded, watching the vaulting exercise of Casimir Schmidt (27). It is the last exercise of the Dutch team during the World Cup in Antwerp on Saturday evening. Jordi Hagenaar (20), who is only competing in his second World Gymnastics Championships. In addition, all-rounder Jermain Grünberg (23), then veteran Bart Deurloo (32), who had actually already retired from gymnastics but returned this year. Then Loran de Munck (24), who won a unique silver European Championship medal on vaulting last year, and finally reserve Martijn de Veer (20). Occasionally they encourage something, but they are mainly quiet and tense. A little further away, their national coach, the Flemish Dirk Van Meldert, stands watching with his arms stiffly at his sides.
If this goes well, if Schmidt does not fall, the team has a good chance of getting a ticket for the Olympic Games in Paris next year. Although this only became clear on Sunday afternoon, when all teams had had their turn.
It was “intense,” says Schmidt on Saturday evening after the match, when he had just arrived with a half-eaten banana in his hand. Grünberg, who had previously performed very stable on the components, fell in vaulting. “I was completely devastated, completely soured,” he said afterwards. Already on floor, the part before vaulting, the high pace of the competition had taken hold. Grünberg: “During the penultimate series, I threw up in my mouth.” He swallowed it again.
Deurloo also had a hard time. Cramps in his legs, actually from the beginning, but it only becomes visible on the floor. “I don’t really know why.” He can’t finish his last series.
Due to Deurloo’s cramp on the floor, Schmidt can only start his own floor exercise later, he says, because the jury did not really know what to do with Deurloos exercise. It took a long time for the score to arrive. And because of his late start on floor, Schmidt then has to rush back to vaulting, the last part.
Keep heart rate low
While cheering, he tries to get his heart rate down. “And then suddenly you have those braces in place and you think: yes, now it has to happen.” Normally, he says, he freely enters a vaulting exercise, but now he mainly thinks: don’t fall. “You could also see that reflected in how the exercise was carried out.” The score is somewhat disappointing at 13.1333. “But… not fallen.”
When Schmidt lands neatly on the mat again, his teammates are in complete shock. Clenched fists, then a group hug, gigantic applause from the large number of Dutch people in the stands. “Then the discharge comes out for a moment,” says Jordi Hagenaar, who says “he has never felt so many nerves.” The Dutch team finished in a nice eighth place on Saturday with a score of just over 246 points, with especially good performances on vault and bars.
It’s enough, the men saw on Sunday afternoon after a few very tense hours in the stands, when France and Korea made a mistake. The Netherlands finishes in eleventh place, the first twelve teams can go to Paris. They all have tears in their eyes when they talk to the press shortly afterwards.
Schmidt made his World Cup debut here in Antwerp in 2013. And ten years later, his role in this relatively young team has changed. He is now the “older, more mature one in the group.” At the start of the match, in the catacombs, Schmidt gives a “good speech,” says Deurloo. “That was very cool, that he took on that role. Great man, we’re just a good team.”
What had he said? Schmidt: “That it’s not over until it’s over. That we will encounter scores that we do not agree with.” So lower than hoped. “But we should not let ourselves be drawn into the misery.” He also says that the hard work has already been done. “It’s all dotted and i’s crossed and it goes the way it goes. No one is going to fall on purpose now. Everyone fought hard for it. Everyone has the same goal.”
It helps, of course, that Deurloo and he have both already experienced two qualifying moments for the Olympic Games. But a big difference: for Tokyo (2021), the Dutch men did not qualify as a team, and Schmidt did not manage to qualify individually. And in Rio de Janeiro (2016) the team was there, but Schmidt was not selected.
Such a scenario seems unlikely for next year, given the important place he now occupies in the team. But Schmidt is still cautious: “I hope I can be there in Paris. I will do everything for that.”
Betting on team
It was not so long ago that Dutch gymnasts went to major tournaments as individual athletes. The commitment to qualifying as a team was really instilled for the first time by national coach Mitch Fenner, who took office in 2013. But guys like Hagenaar are from far beyond that time. They don’t know any better, says Schmidt.
And that team spirit is palpable in almost everything the Dutch gymnasts say about each other afterwards. When Hagenaar praises Deurloo for his strong exercise on the horizontal bar and states that without him he would never have been able to achieve such a good final score, Deurloo responds: “It’s nice that he says that.” To continue: “You have eighteen scores, you know.” So everything counts.
And when Grünberg, who excelled on the horizontal bar, talks about his fall on vaulting, he says that at the end he “wasn’t with the big boys.” There are blood splatters on his white shirt from the blisters on his hands. But fortunately, “the team handled it well.”