Never before has UvA-student Elze Geurts been so close to the Olympics
The Olympics? Ten years ago it was unthinkable for gymnast Elze Geurts. Meanwhile, at 29, she is in great shape, “better than I’ve ever been,” and has been scoring high in the Dutch rankings all season. And then, just before the Olympic qualifiers she suffered injuries.
How is it going? “Not so good right now,” says gymnast and UvA student Elze Geurts on the phone in mid-June. It is right before the first Olympic qualifier at the NK gymnastics. Suddenly it is uncertain whether she will be able to compete in it. She sprained her hamstring in early June during a regular exercise she does every day. She also developed muscle trouble in the capsule around her shoulder, an injury she suffers from more often. “A bit of bad luck I think, mostly,” Geurts responds soberly. “Fortunately, nothing is broken, but training is very difficult now.”
Born: April 26th, 1995 in Raalte
UvA field of study: Medicine
Bachelor of Philosophy
Sport: Gymnastics
Goal in Paris: To reach the finals with the Dutch women’s team.
Best performance: Participation in the World Championships on vault in 2021, reserve at the Olympic Games in Tokyo.
Two weeks later, at the first Olympic qualifier in Rotterdam, Geurts is still taking part. But she has to abandon her routine prematurely. Especially the splits are still too painful for her hamstring. This significantly reduces her chances of making it to the Olympics in Paris. If she still wants to make Paris, she will have to achieve an extra high score in the second qualification on July 6th in Ghent - provided she has recovered by then - to catch up with her competitors.
She knows better than anyone that gymnastics involves injuries. She tore both her Achilles tendons and the anterior cruciate ligament in her knee, serious injuries that took her months to recover from. It taught her not to be so quick to worry about things, “at least not about things you can't change.” And also that after the worst setbacks, things always get a little better.
Realistic chances
It is still, to say the least, an unfortunate moment for Geurts, who scored at the top of the rankings of Dutch gymnasts last season. She achieved the highest number of points at the European Gymnastics Championships in Rimini in early May, although the top favorites for the Olympic selection, Naomi Visser, Eythora Thorsdottir, Sanne Wevers, and Sanna Vermeer were not present.
Before her injury, she had a realistic chance of going to the Olympics. There are five spots on the Dutch women's team, for which 10 more women on the Orange squad and several more outside are in the running. “I think I could get spot 4, 5, 6, or 7 if I were fully fit. Those are reasonable odds,” Geurts estimated a few weeks ago. That was even before top favorite Eythora Thorsdottir, unfortunately, broke her foot a week later.
A decade ago, this was very different. “Back then, I had nothing to look forward to at the big tournaments. The Olympics were unthinkable. You don’t see that often in gymnastics,” the 29-year-old Geurts told Folia in early February. Most gymnasts who reach the highest podiums do so at a young age. Geurts did not debut on the world stage until she was 26.
Geurts started gymnastics at age seven. She progressed to a top sports club but was eliminated quite early there because she had less talent “compared to other girls.” Unlike most gymnasts, she is not agile and does not rely on her graceful movements, but rather on her muscular strength and perseverance, which is why she excels at jumping.
She still continued to do gymnastics. During her high school years, she practiced about 30 hours a week. “My parents always supported me, but on the condition that my school and later my studies did not suffer as a result.”
Being challenged
And she stuck to that. She is now not only on the Dutch national team but is close to getting a degree in medicine. After this summer, she will have one more year of residencies to qualify as a general practitioner. She always continued to study alongside her gymnastics. During the waiting period for her residencies, for example, she pursued a bachelor’s degree in philosophy. “If you only do sports you are busy with one thing. I like to be challenged in other areas as well.”
Even in her Olympic year, when most athletes put their studies on hold, she continues to do residencies. Until April, she went to the Onze Lieve Vrouwe Gasthuis (OLVG) three days a week for the sports medicine residency on an e-bike “because you shouldn’t arrive at a workout tired.” Monday and Tuesday she combines training with her residency. “Then I’m in bed by 9:00 p.m. and sleep through the night.”
A hard work mentality characterizes Geurts, something she inherited from home. “I have a lot of stamina and can quite easily put in the work it takes to compete at this level.”
She also manages to keep the fun in gymnastics. “It still feels like a big playground,” she says of it. “Gymnastics is something I very clearly chose for myself. I have the discipline to go on like this. No one is telling me to do it.”
Better than ever
She also keeps getting better and better. In those years of learning about Descartes and Kant, she reached the Dutch selection. And even then, the ceiling was not yet in sight. “I notice that I get better and better and that gives me a lot of motivation,” she said in February. “Especially on the all-around, the competition where you perform exercises on all four apparatuses, I used to perform clearly better in two disciplines and less well in two others. Now I feel that I perform well in all disciplines. And it shows in the scores I get at competitions. There’s always room for improvement, but I’m in top shape now, better than I’ve ever been.”
In the final months before the Games, she also stops her residencies to focus entirely on training and recovery. Everything revolves around that one goal, but she won’t hear about it until the last moment if it will succeed. “It’s very exciting, but that’s always how it is when you do gymnastics at this level. So at some point, you learn to deal with that tension.”
Competing in the Olympics would be the crowning achievement. And yet - with her current injuries - that goal seems to be drifting away from her. How does she feel about that? “The Olympics seems like the most important moment, and it is. But suppose you don’t make it, it’s not the end of the world,” the down-to-earth Geurts says. She tries to stay positive. And is it important for her to win? “A little bit.”
The second Olympic qualifier for gymnastics is July 6th, 2024 in Ghent.
