Occupation
Athlete
Spoken languages
English, French
Club
Athanor Gym Club: Brussels, BEL
Coach
Gilles Gentges [national], BEL
Start sporting career
He took up the sport at Athanor GC in Belgium. He began training more seriously at age 11.
Reason for taking up the sport
He was inspired to take up gymnastics after watching the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing on television. "As a child, I learned swimming and aikido. But, when I watched a gymnast on the horizontal bar at the 2008 Olympics on television, I said to my father, 'That's what I want to do. I will go to the Olympics'. The horizontal bar is elegant but complicated at the same time, and I was fascinated."
Ambitions
To compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. (RTBF Sport Facebook page, 11 Apr 2021)
Hero / Idol
Japanese artistic gymnast Kohei Uchimura. (RTBF Sport Facebook page, 11 Apr 2021)
Awards
He received a Sports Merit Award at the 2019 Woluwe-Saint-Pierre Sports Awards in Belgium. (athanorgym.be, 08 Oct 2019)
Additional information
HERITAGE
His mother is Japanese. "I actually feel that I still have a little bit of Japanese culture in my performance. It's a feeling of lightness and ease that Japanese athletes have when you watch them do gymnastics." (rtbf.be, 13 Apr 2021; RTBF Sport Facebook page, 11 Apr 2021; athanorgym.be, 08 Oct 2019)
Last update : 2024-07-22