There she is, just six months after she started top gymnastics again. On the podium of the European Gymnastics Championships in Antalya. With tears in her eyes, a gold medal around her neck. She is grateful, she says afterwards, that she has found the fun in the sport again.
In October Sanne Wevers (31), the Olympic champion of Rio 2016, stepped back on the beam after a long absence. She then saw with fresh eyes how absurd that actually is, gymnastics at just over 10 centimeters. “Jesus, that first time. So narrow. That high.”
For a long time it was not clear whether Wevers wanted to continue in top sport. That was after the deception of ‘Tokyo’, where she did not reach the final as Rio’s Olympic champion on beam. And where her father and coach Vincent were not allowed to travel because of accusations of transgressive behaviour.
But last October, Wevers decided to continue anyway, that this would not be the end of her career.
She started quietly, she says, with “clunky basic things”. “I am not the youngest anymore. The body is leading.”
For a while she thought that these European championships in Turkey would come too soon. But she went ahead. “Faster than expected.” And so, at the age of 31, Sanne Wevers returned to the Dutch women’s team and her first international gymnastics tournament since the Summer Games in Japan.
Bronze with the team
On Wednesday she was there for the first time, at the Nations Cup. Just after the team of five has come up in a leotard, Wevers puts on her TeamNL training pants again. She has to wait a little longer: the bar is only the second part for the Dutch women.
While her teammates whip past on the bridge, like a cloud of glitter, Wevers is already on the beam in her mind. She walks on an imaginary line, arms outstretched. Then she stands – right foot in front of her left – on the chairs against the back wall. In between, she encourages her teammates.
Then it’s the bar’s turn, with Wevers last. Feet in the lime, hands in the lime, feet again. Everyone is watching. „This is the exercise of Sanne Wevers”, reports the stadium speaker. Most women are not announced, but an Olympic champion who makes her comeback does not turn in the lee. “That’s okay,” Wevers says with a laugh afterwards. “I will never get rid of that.”
She can handle it. Or rather: she likes the pressure that comes with “the game”. The ‘uncomfortable’ of top gymnastics suits her. “You feel a lot of tension, a lot of nerves. But to me, that’s the best thing there is. They are feelings that I have not found anywhere else in the past two years. And I have come to really appreciate them.”
When she does her drill – with a high difficulty and many of her signature pirouettes – it seems as if she has never left. She comes third, thus contributing to the beautiful bronze Dutch team medal and conquering a place in the final for herself. Shortly after her dismount, she lets out a sigh that can be heard in the stands. Afterwards, Wevers gets a hug from her father and coach.
She is “very happy” that he is there. Vincent Wevers was acquitted on appeal in March for transgressive behavior by the ISR disciplinary body. Gymnastics association KNGU decided that he could come to Antalya. “The process to get here obviously takes a lot of time and energy. Then it’s nice to be able to finish it together. And of course I’m at 4 inches, and the margins are even smaller than that. Yes, then sometimes it is just what clue you get that counts.”
Relativize
This Sunday, during the apparatus final, Wevers is even stronger on the beam than on Wednesday. Its competitors are also doing well: the level of the group is high. Few mistakes are made, all but one gymnast remain on the beam. But Wevers is the best, with a score of 13,800. It was “a nice exercise,” she says. And extra nice that it was such a strong final, she ‘prefers’ to win it.
“What a comeback,” her father says to her, with a first hug.
And so Wevers proves: you can also make your comeback in top gymnastics at the age of 31. On stage she stands next to a teenager: the 16-year-old Italian Manila Esposito, who takes the silver. She is not sure whether she is the oldest with European Championship gold. But gymnastics is certainly no longer a sport that you can only do with “a junior body”, says Wevers more often lately. “You can see it in the width of the field of participants. I think that is positive.”
Are there things she can do better now than a few years ago? She doesn’t have to think long. “Relativize. Yeah, you know, I’ve been through it all. The highest peaks, the deepest valley. I’ve survived everything so far. Either way, life goes on.” Gymnastics, she says, is about performing properly at the right time. “But I also know that if that doesn’t work out for a while, there will be new opportunities. That you can create them yourself.”