Looking Back: Team Belgium at Worlds 2013

The 2013 World Championships in Belgium proved to be a success for the home country: this was the first time that 2 Belgian women were in the all around finals. Belgian phenom Julie Croket had to miss the home World Championships due to an elbow injury. This came just a short time after she returned to the sport from an ACL injury that kept her out of the Olympics. The team that attended the World Championships consisted of Lisa Verschueren, Laura Waem, and Gaelle Mys who went to the Olympics in place of Croket. Waem and Mys were the two that made the all around final.

Lisa Verschueren finished the all around in 36th place. What do you think of this floor routine? She got a 6.533 execution with a fall. I thought it was a bit low - judging a la non big 4 country. What do you think? "Turn is horribly imprecise (but only 0.1 deduction allowed), turning leap looked short. Plus, dance and music just don't seem to work together- artistry deductions." -@bririchardson. I agree with the artistry issue but it looked like a low 8s, high 7s (since she's a non big 4 athlete) on my first viewing of the routine.





Laura Waem is probably a new favorite of mine after watching her routines for this post. She made it to the all around final and finished in 21st place just behind Rebecca Tunney and Noel van Klaveren. The commenters say that the score was too high. What do you think? E of 8.133. Personally, I need to go back and look at other routines from her subdivision of qualification. I see the leg separation on the Shaposhnikova, the form break on the bail, and the super late pirouette before the Tkatchev... But it's such a pretty Tkatchev!!!



Gaelle Mys went to the Beijing 2008 Olympics along with the London 2012 Olympics. She is the veteran of the Belgian team and a strong gymnast for the country. Of the three, I think her floor routine was the most cohesive as far as choreography matching the music matching the ability of the gymnast as a dancer. Also, what is her first pass. Actual front tumbling? Connected? What?!


After doing this, I've realized that the Belgian athletes are far more impressive than I thought! Their D-scores were all equal to or greater than 5. As dancers, they all seem able-bodied (and I'm not talking about body type, I'm talking about fluidity and musicality amongst other things). However, their choreography needs some help. Lisa V has some lovely choreography on beam but her choreography for floor exercise didn't seem to match the music at all. Laura Waem's is a little bit better but it's hard to be posey when your music has such a good beat and tempo. Gaelle Mys seemed to almost be "there" (wherever there may be) but seemed to fall a little short.

In the words of Beyonce, if you got it, flaunt it. I feel like the Belgian girls have "it" and just need to werk it.

Here is a playlist of the routines I can find. I recommend you watch the beam and floor exercises that weren't posted here to get a better feel for the artistry discussion. Worlds 2013 Playlist.

So, what do you think of the girls from the host nation of the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, Belgium? What do you think of the scoring of the first 2 routines?