Supporting English football team Chelsea. (tresamagazine.com, 27 Sep 2022)

Armed Forces Athlete

Dutch, English

Silok Deurne: Belgium

Gilles Gentges [national], BEL; Koen Van Damme [national], BEL

In late 2022 he sustained an eye injury and was sidelined for two months. (Instagram profile, 06 Jan 2023)

He tore his right Achilles tendon in October 2021 at the Wase Cup in Melsele, Belgium. (intlgymnast.com, 30 Nov 2021)

In 2021 he was affected by a bulging disc in his lower back. The injury limited his training in the lead-up to the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan. (intlgymnast.com, 30 Nov 2021)

He took up the sport at age four.

"As a child, I was full of energy and always climbing on stuff. I started because of my sister, she was also doing gymnastics and she taught me some flips at home so I enrolled in the club, and just loved flipping and stuff."

To compete at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. (gva.be, 08 Sep 2021)

Competing in the horizontal bar final at the 2018 European Championships in Glasgow, Scotland, participating in the all-around final at the 2021 World Championships in Kitakyushu, Japan, and having his own element added to the Code of Points for the parallel bars. (tresamagazine.com, 27 Sep 2022)

Japanese gymnast Kohei Uchimura, British gymnast Nile Wilson. (demorgen.be, 30 Sep 2018; gobelgym.be, 01 Feb 2017)

He uses music to motivate himself before competing. "I call it hype music." (demorgen.be, 30 Sep 2018)

"To dream big, then you can achieve big things and to never give up on your dreams." (tresamagazine.com, 27 Sep 2022)

In 2021 he was named Sportsperson of the Year in Deurne, Belgium. (antwerpen.be, 11 Oct 2022)

TWISTIES
In 2022 he said he had been affected during competition by the mental block known in gymnastics as the 'twisties', and that he had been working with a psychologist to overcome the problem. "It is a mental block that I have to get over. We have no idea what the explanation could be, we will find out together with my coach and the psychologist. The way it feels while performing is that I actually can't keep going, and that if I were to keep going, I would be doing something different in my head than I actually want to do. It's difficult to explain. I've never experienced anything like this before. It's not dangerous per se, but it feels dangerous to me. I'm searching for the right solution." (sporza.be, 29 Oct 2022)

NAMED ELEMENT
In December 2021 'The Kuavita' was added to the Code of Points for the parallel bars by the International Gymnastics Federation [FIG]. The element, first performed by him at the 2021 World Challenge Cup event in Koper, Slovenia, involves a double salto backwards with half turn to upper arms and has an 'F' value. (gymnastics.sport, 14 Dec 2021)

HERITAGE
His parents moved from Angola to Belgium in 1994. "Before the warm-up starts, I first listen to a song 'Papa Telema' by Kool Matope. A song in the Lingala. I do not speak that language myself, but my parents, who left Angola 24 years ago [speaking in 2018] to build a life in Belgium, do speak that language, and one of my sisters too. She translated the lyrics for me." (demorgen.be, 30 Sep 2018)

TV APPEARANCE
In 2018 he was a finalist on the television show 'Belgium's Got Talent', along with fellow Belgian gymnast Jimmy Verbaeys. Together they formed the duo 'Interius Fortitudo'. (gva.be, 25 May 2018)