Sanne Wevers
Sanne Wevers (born 17 September 1991) is a Dutch artistic gymnast. She has competed internationally as a senior since 2007, primarily as a balance beam and uneven bars specialist. Wevers is the 2016 Olympic and 2018 European champion on balance beam and was the first Dutch female gymnast to become an individual Olympic champion. She is also the 2015 World silver medalist on balance beam and the 2015 European bronze medalist on uneven bars.[3]
Sanne Wevers | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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![]() Wevers at the 2016 Summer Olympics | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Personal information | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Country represented | ![]() | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Born | Leeuwarden, Friesland, Netherlands | 17 September 1991||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Residence | Heerenveen, Friesland, Netherlands | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Height | 1.58 m (5 ft 2 in)[1] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Years on national team | 2007 – present (NED) | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Club | Bosan Ton Almelo | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Head coach(es) | Gerben Wiersma Vincent Wevers | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Eponymous skills | Beam: double turn with leg held horizontal[2] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
Medal record
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Early life and training
Wevers was born on 17 September 1991, in Leeuwarden. She is six minutes older than her fraternal twin, Lieke.[4] They are both members of the Dutch national gymnastics team and are coached by their father, Vincent Wevers.[5]
In 1992, Wevers and her family moved to Oldenzaal. When she was 12, she and her sister started training with their father at a local club in Dronrijp. The family later moved to Twente, and the twins started training at Topturnen Oost-Nederland (English translation: Top Gymnastics Eastern Netherlands). Her parents helped turn it into a high-level sports facility called BosanTON.
In 2013, Vincent Wevers had an argument with the management of the facility and was fired. Ultimately, the twins moved with their father to Heerenveen to train, while their mother stayed in Oldenzaal.
Senior career
2007–2008
Wevers made her international debut in 2007 at the Ghent World Cup, where she placed seventh on uneven bars.[6] She also placed eighth on balance beam at the Glasgow Grand Prix.[7] She competed on bars, beam, and floor at the 2007 European Championships, but did not qualify for any event finals.[8]
Wevers began the 2008 Olympic season at the European Championships. She scored 14.975 on beam, contributing to the Netherlands' eighth-place finish in the team finals.[9] She finished eighth on beam at the Cottbus World Cup,[10] and won silver on beam at the Maribor World Cup.[11] At the World Cup in Tianjin, she finished seventh on balance beam.[12]
At the Dutch national championships, Wevers finished second in the all-around,[13] fifth on bars, and second on beam and floor.[14] The Netherlands could only send one athlete to the 2008 Summer Olympics, and Suzanne Harmes was chosen instead of Wevers.[15]
At the Glasgow Grand Prix, Wevers placed seventh on floor and won gold on both bars and beam.[16] She finished 2008 by placing sixth on bars and fourth on beam at the Stuttgart DTB Cup.[17]
2009–2012
Wevers placed fourth on beam at the 2009 Moscow World Stars, but sustained an elbow injury and did not compete for the rest of the year.[5] In 2010, she competed at the 2010 European Championships and contributed a 13.025 on beam toward the Netherlands' seventh-place finish.[18] She was selected to compete at the 2010 World Championships,[19] where the Netherlands finished ninth in qualifications, one spot away from the team final.[20] On beam at the World Championships, Wevers successfully performed a new artistic element, a double full turn with free leg at horizontal, and the skill was named after her.[1][2]
She had shoulder surgery soon after the World Championships, and later sustained a foot injury that kept her out of contention for the 2012 Summer Olympics.[5] Wevers returned to competition at the Ostrava World Cup in 2012, where she won silver on beam.[21]
2013–2015
![](../I/m/2015_European_Artistic_Gymnastics_Championships_-_Balance_beam_-_Sanne_Wevers_01.jpg)
In 2013, Wevers won gold on beam at the Osijek World Cup[22] and was named to the Dutch team for the 2013 World Championships. At Worlds, she fell on balance beam in qualifications and did not advance to the final.[23]
In June 2014, she competed at the Dutch Nationals, winning gold on beam and silver on bars, and placing ninth in the all-around.[24] She then competed at the 2014 European Championships, where the Dutch team finished ninth.[25] At the 2014 World Championships, the Netherlands finished tenth, qualifying a full team to the 2015 World Championships.[26]
In 2015, Wevers competed at the Ljubljana World Cup in April, where a fall on balance beam landed her in fourth place.[27] At the European Championships, she qualified to the uneven bars and balance beam finals. She won a bronze on bars, but fell on one of her spins on beam and finished her routine well over her allotted 90 seconds. She finished eighth.[28]
At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships, Wevers helped the Netherlands finish eighth in the team competition. Individually, she won the silver medal on balance beam. Wevers calculated her own difficulty score in a notebook immediately after finishing her routine, and when it was inconsistent with the judges' score her coach filed an inquiry on her behalf, which was accepted.[29]
2016
![](../I/m/Sanne_Wevers%2C_na_prova_final_da_trave_nos_Jogos_Ol%C3%ADmpicos_Rio_2016_(02).jpg)
In 2016, Wevers upgraded the difficulty score of her beam routine by seven-tenths and won gold at the Olympic Test Event. She then became the Dutch national champion on beam with a score of 15.650.
In July, Wevers was named to the Dutch team for the 2016 Summer Olympics, and her sister Lieke also made the team.[30] In qualifications on 7 August, Wevers scored 14.408 on uneven bars and 15.066 on balance beam, advancing to the final in fourth place.[31] On 15 August, she won the gold medal in the balance beam final with a score of 15.466, outscoring Americans Laurie Hernandez and Simone Biles, who won silver and bronze. This was the first time a Dutch woman won an individual medal in artistic gymnastics,[32] the second time a Dutch woman won a medal in artistic gymnastics after the Dutch team won gold at their home Olympics in 1928, and the second time a Dutch gymnast won an individual medal, following Epke Zonderland's win on the horizontal bar at the 2012 Summer Olympics. Wevers was selected to be the country's flag bearer at the closing ceremonies.
"Dutchwoman Sanne Wevers won gold with [a] routine that stood out with a sharp contrast in styles to the others ... [She] performed a routine that was short on acrobatic skills, but big on pirouettes, a skill that Wevers is known for. She pulled off a triple turn without a hint of hesitation early in the routine and later added a turn that reversed fields and headed back in the other direction."
2017
After the Olympics, Wevers returned to competition in February 2017 at the Melbourne World Cup. She finished second on balance beam behind Chinese gymnast Liu Tingting. She was chosen to represent the Netherlands at the European Championships in Cluj alongside Eythora Thorsdottir, Tisha Volleman, and Kristen Polderman. Wevers qualified for the balance beam final and finished in fifth place.
Wevers competed at the 2017 World Championships but did not qualify to the beam final due to missing a required backwards acrobatic element in her routine, an automatic 0.5 point deduction from her D-score, in qualifications.
2018
Wevers competed at the 2018 Dutch Artistic Gymnastics Championships where she placed first on balance beam and fifth on uneven bars.[34] On 7–8 July she competed at the Heerenveen Friendly where she placed first on balance, second in the team final, and fourth on uneven bars.[35] She was selected to compete at the European Championships in Glasgow alongside Tisha Volleman and 2016 Olympic teammates Vera Van Pol, Eythora Thorsdottir (replaced by Naomi Visser due to injury), and Celine Van Gerner. Wevers competed on uneven bars and balance beam in the qualification, helping the Dutch team qualify to the team final as well as qualifying individually on the balance beam. In the team finals she once again competed on both bars and beam. She improved upon her scores from the qualifications, receiving the highest score of the day on Beam, a 13.7. Her scores helped the Dutch team secure a bronze medal.[36] In event finals she placed first on balance beam, winning her first ever European Championships gold medal.[37]
Wevers was later named to the team to compete at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar alongside Vera van Pol, Kirsten Polderman, Naomi Visser, Tisha Volleman, and alternate Sanna Veerman.[38] During 2018 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships Wevers qualified to the balance beam final in fourth place, but fell off the beam on her acrobatic series in the final to finish seventh.
2019
In February 2019, Wevers announced that she would spend the majority of the year recovering from leg and hip injuries and would likely miss the 2019 European Championships in Szczecin, Poland but hopes to recover in time for the 2019 World Championships.[39]
Wevers made her return to competition at the Second Heerenveen Friendly in September where she helped the Netherlands place first. Individually she recorded the third highest balance beam score behind Giulia Steingruber of Switzerland and compatriot Naomi Visser.[40]
Wevers competed at the 2019 World Championships alongside Eythora Thorsdottir, Lieke Wevers, Tisha Volleman, and Naomi Visser. They qualified to the team final in sixth place, and as a result qualified a team to the 2020 Olympic Games in Tokyo. During the team final Wevers contributed scores on uneven bars and balance beam towards the Netherlands eighth place finish.
Eponymous skills
Apparatus | Name | Description | Difficulty | Notes |
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Balance Beam | Wevers | Double turn with leg at horizontal | E | Often called a double L turn; added to the Code of Points after the 2010 World Championships |
Wevers has been working on 2½ turn with leg at horizontal on the beam. It is waiting successful completion in competition when the skill would possibly be named the Wevers 2 on beam and assigned a D-score of F.
Competitive history
![](../I/m/Sanne_Wevers_on_uneven_bars.jpg)
![](../I/m/2015_European_Artistic_Gymnastics_Championships_-_Balance_beam_-_Sanne_Wevers_03.jpg)
Year | Event | Team | AA | VT | UB | BB | FX |
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2007 | Ghent World Cup | 7 | |||||
Glasgow Grand Prix | 8 | ||||||
2008 | |||||||
European Championships | 8 | ||||||
Cottbus World Cup | 8 | ||||||
Maribor World Cup | ![]() | ||||||
Tianjin World Cup | 7 | ||||||
National Championships | ![]() | 5 | ![]() | ![]() | |||
Glasgow World Cup | ![]() | ![]() | 7 | ||||
Stuttgart World Cup | 6 | 4 | |||||
2009 | Moscow World Cup | 4 | ![]() | ||||
2010 | |||||||
European Championships | 7 | ||||||
2012 | Ostrava World Cup | ![]() | |||||
2013 | Turnen Dames Interland | 4 | ![]() | ||||
Osijek World Cup | ![]() | ||||||
2014 | National Championships | 9 | ![]() | ![]() | |||
2015 | Ljubljana World Cup | 4 | |||||
European Championships | ![]() | 8 | |||||
National Championships | ![]() | ![]() | |||||
World Championships | 8 | ![]() | |||||
2016 | Cottbus World Cup | 8 | ![]() | ||||
Olympic Test Event | ![]() | ||||||
National Championships | ![]() | ||||||
Olympic Games | 7 | ![]() | |||||
2017 | Melbourne World Cup | ![]() | |||||
European Championships | 5 | ||||||
Paris Challenge Cup | 5 | ||||||
Cottbus World Cup | 4 | 5 | |||||
Toyota International | 5 | ![]() | |||||
2018 | Dutch Championships | 5 | ![]() | ||||
Heerenveen Friendly | ![]() | 4 | ![]() | ||||
European Championships | ![]() | ![]() | |||||
World Championships | R2 | 7 | |||||
2019 | 2nd Heerenveen Friendly | ![]() | |||||
World Championships | 8 |
References
- "WEVERS Sanne (NED)". FIG Gymnastics. 22 September 2017. Retrieved 24 May 2018.
- Women’s Artistic Gymnastics 2017–2020 Code Of Points – FIG, page 207
- "Looking back on Montpellier with ... Sanne Wevers (NED)". European Union of Gymnastics. 23 April 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "History". Gymnastics with Sanne and Lieke. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- Turner, Amanda (12 May 2014). "IG Online Interview: Lieke and Sanne Wevers (Netherlands)". International Gymnast Magazine Online. International Gymnast Magazine. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "4th World Cup Women Gent 2007 Women's Uneven Bar Finals". Gymnastics Results. 13 May 2007. Archived from the original on 21 January 2016. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Glasgow Grand Prix 2007 Women's Balance Beam Finals". Gymnastics Results. 10 November 2007. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "2nd European Individual Championship Artistic Gymnastics Women Results Women's Qualification". Gymnastics Results. 26 April 2007. Archived from the original on 7 November 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Women's Teams Finals – 2008 European Championships". Gymnastics Results. 5 April 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "32th [sic] Turnier der Meister 2008 Women's Balance Beam Finals". Gymnastics Results. 13 April 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "41th [sic] Šalamunov memorial 4th World Cup Maribor Women's Balance Beam Finals". Gymnastics Results. 27 April 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Bank of China FIG 2008 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup Women's Balance Beam Finals". Gymnastics Results. 15 May 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Nederlands Kampioenschap Turnen Dames SENIOR" (PDF). Gymnastics Results (in Dutch). Netherlands Gymnastics Federation. 21 June 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Uitslag NK Turnen Dames 2008 Toestelfinales Senior" (PDF). Gymnastics Results (in Dutch). Netherlands Gymnastics Federation. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Gymnastics Artistic Women's Qualification" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. Beijing 2008. 10 August 2008. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Glasgow Grand Prix 2008 and World Cup Artistic Gymnastics World Cup". Gymnastics Results. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "26th DTB Pokal Stuttgart 2008 Artistic Gymnastics World Cup". Gymnastics Results. Archived from the original on 27 May 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Results Seniors Team Final" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. European Union of Gymnastics. 1 May 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Nominative Registration – WAG" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. FIG. 28 September 2010. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Team Results Women's Qualification" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. FIG. 16 October 2010. Archived from the original (PDF) on 1 July 2015. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Grand Prix Ostrava 2012 Beam – Women" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "ART Grand Prix Osijek 2013 Challenge cup CIII final Balance Beam" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. FIG. 15 September 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Women's Qualification Individual Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. FIG. 1 October 2013. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Medaille groep: Eredivisie Senior" (PDF). Gymnastics Results (in Dutch). Netherlands Gymnastics Federation. 21 June 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "30th European Women's Artistic Gymnastics Results Team" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. 15 May 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- "Women's Qualification Team Results" (PDF). Gymnastics Results. FIG. 5 October 2014. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- Hopkins, Lauren (3 April 2015). "2015 Ljubljana Challenge Cup Results". The Gymternet. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- Hopkins, Lauren (15 April 2015). "2015 European Championships Results". The Gymternet. Retrieved 2 May 2015.
- Julia Fincher (16 August 2016), $300 for one-tenth of a point: How a gymnast appeals her score, NBC Olympics, retrieved 18 August 2016
- "Turnsters Lieke en Sanne Wevers officieel naar Olympische Spelen". RTV Oost. 10 July 2016. Retrieved 13 July 2016.
- Women's Qualification - Subdivision 4, rio2016.com, retrieved 17 August 2016
- Fincher, Julia (15 August 2016). "Wevers beats Hernandez, Biles for gold on balance beam". NBC Olympics. Retrieved 15 August 2016.
- Cazeneuve, Brian. "Sanne Wevers wins Olympic beam final, Simone Biles gets bronze". si.com. 15 August 2016. Retrieved 27 August 2016.
- "2018 Dutch Championships Results". The Gymnter.net. 24 June 2018.
- "2018 Heerenveen Friendly Results". The Gymnter.net. 11 July 2018.
- "Netherlands pip GB to gymnastics team bronze". BBC Sport. 4 August 2018.
- "Sanne Wevers verovert Europese titel op de balk". Hart van Nederland (in Dutch). 5 August 2018.
- "Wiersma maakt WK-team bekend". KNGU (in Dutch). 8 October 2018.
- "Sanne mist EK en richt zich op WK". The Force (in Dutch). 14 February 2019.
- "2019 2nd Heerenveen Friendly Results". The Gymternet. 14 September 2019.
External links
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Wikimedia Commons has media related to Sanne Wevers. |
Awards | ||
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Preceded by Dafne Schippers |
Dutch Sportswoman of the Year 2016 |
Succeeded by Dafne Schippers |