Gymnast's profile - Jimmy Verbaeys

Credit: sporza.be

Date of birth: 26/08/1993 (21)

Club: Blauwput Omnisport - Topsportcentrum Ghent

Jimmy Verbaeys is probably one of the most famous gymnasts in Belgium. Originally from Brussels, he started gymnastics at the age of 3, in Saint-Gilles first, then in Auderghem. Because of the lack of Elite structures in Wallonia (now solved with the Elite Centre in Mons), he left for Ghent at the end of primary school.

The language barrier fading gradually, Jimmy flourishes and finds his rhythm. He joined the Juniors ranks in 2008, placing 5th at the Belgian Championships. The following year, he travelled to Tampere and the European Youth Olympic Festival, and then to the Wase Gym Cup.


In 2010, he participated in his first European Junior Championships in Birmingham, where he reached the final on pommel horse (5th). The same year, he won silver at National. But that's not all: at 17 years old, he joined the senior ranks in October and is selected for the World Championships in Rotterdam. Unfortunately, the team misses a qualifying spot for the 2011 World Championships and thus a qualifying spot for the London Olympics. In 2011, Jimmy competed individually at the Euro in Berlin and Worlds in Tokyo.

Credit: getty images

He won a silver medal in the all-around at Belgian Championships in 2012, before flying to Montpellier and the European Championships, where the Belgian team ranked 14th. In June, he heard the news that he will represent Belgian men's gymnastics at the Olympic Games in London. He earned an individual qualifying spot at the Challenger Cup in Maribor, where he scored, on parallel bars, a score that would have allowed him to reach the final at Worlds in 2011.

In 2008, in Beijing, Koen Van Damme had represented Belgium, a first since the 1960 Olympic Games for a male gymnast from Belgium. Not only Jimmy Verbaeys followed in the footsteps of his elder, but he did even better, as he qualified for the all-around final. This was the first time in the history of Belgian men's gymnastics that a gymnast qualified for a final in the Olympics.

Verbaeys continued his path. He reached again the all around final at the European Championships in 2013. Last year, in Nanning, he contributed to the 19th place finished of Team Belgium at Worlds, a place that qualifies Belgium for the 2015 World Championships in Glasgow in October. With this result, Belgium can still dream of an Olympic qualification.


Crowned Belgian champion in March, Jimmy Verbaeys also participated at the first ever European Games in Baku, where he finished in 16th place in the all-around and 18th with the team.

Results:

2015 - European Games (Baku): 18th (team), 16th (all-around)

2015 - Belgian Championships: 1st (all-around)

2014 - World Championships (Nanning): 19th (team), 53rd (all-around)

2014 - European Championships (Sofia): 11th (team), 8th (all-around)

2014 - Belgian Championships: 2nd (all-around)

2013 - World Championships (Antwerp): 37th (all-around)

2013 - European Championships (Moscow): 21st (all-around)

2012 - Olympic Games (London): 21st (all-around), 38th (floor exercise), 67th (pommel horse), 52nd (still rings), 42nd (parallel bars), 33rd (horizontal bar)

2012 - World Challenge Cup (Doha): 5th (sol)

2012 - Belgian Championships: 2nd (all-around)

2012 - European Championships (Montpellier): 14th (team)

2011 - World Championships (Tokyo): 67th (all-around)

2011 - European Championships (Berlin): 37th (all-around)

2010 - World Championships (Rotterdam): 28th (team), 93rd (all-around)

2010 - Belgian Junior Championships: 2nd (all-around)

2010 - European Junior Championships (Birmingham): 6th (team), 5th (pommel horse)

2009 - Wase Gym Cup: 1st (team), 5th (all-around), 5th (pommel horse)

2009 - European Youth Olympic Festival (Tampere): 7th (team)

2009 - Belgian Junior Championships: 6th (all-around)

2008 - Belgian Junior Championships: 5th (all-around)