EUROGYM 2016, a participant’s view!

Belgium’s Lieze Frederickx talks about her experiences in Ceske Budejovice

Our faithful mascot Luigi participated in his first EUROGYM last July. The group Koninklijke Diestse Turnkring from Belgium took him under wing, led by the lovely Lieze Frederickx.  She started gymnastics as a three-year-old and now she is a competitive trampoline gymnast and also a coach!

Lieze tells us all about the fantastic time she had in the Czech Republic this summer and her aim for 2018 when EUROGYM will be hosted in her own country!

UEG: What were the best moments at EUROGYM?

Frederickx: One of the nicest moments definitely was the street parade through the city. The Belgian group feeling was amazing. It’s incredible how many gymnasts were present there, almost 4000. It was also nice to get acquainted with the city of Ceske Budejovice for the first time. A nice city with enthusiastic people who always encouraged us. The parade ended in a big arena where all participants were seated by nation. De Mexican wave through the stadium gave me goose bumps!

Each participating group performed twice in the city center. For our first performance it was very hot as the sun shone right onto the podium. But this didn’t stop us from executing our dance well. It was wonderful to perform for such a big audience. The applause afterwards was fantastic. When we came off the stage, people from the town congratulated us. Very nice after all the hard work this year.

The Gala on the second to last day was impressive. The Gympies Keerbergen represented our country and did a great job! Seeing the best groups of the other countries was nice too.

UEG: Was it the first time you participated at EUROGYM? Will you be part of it in Liege in 2 years’ time?

Frederickx: Our club has participated at EUROGYM already four times. The first time was in Denmark, in Odense. Since then we have continued because we find it so fantastic. Now I participated for the second time, last time in Sweden I was there too.

In 2 years in Liege we will definitely be there. It’s such an honour to organise such a big event in your own country. We hope that more Flemish people will participate. In Sweden and in the Czech Republic there were only 2 Flemish groups.

UEG: What impressed you most?

Frederickx: That what impressed me most was definitely the group feeling, not only with the participants from Belgium but also with participants from the other European countries. Because we all share the same passion, the group feeling is immediately very big. Everyone was super social and had a lot of fun together. We met many new people from all over Europe.
 

Because EUROGYM 2018 will be hosted in Liege, the flag of the UEG was handed to Belgium during the Closing Ceremony. Someone from our club got to accept the flag, a big honour. After the handing over of the flag, all Belgians went onto the stage of the arena and performed the Belgian Flash Mob. That was so much fun to do! We also all had a hat on which was written: ‘ EUROGYM 2018 Liege’. This hat we put on the heads of people in the audience after our dance. After this Flash Mob the party erupted and T-shirts were exchanged.

UEG: How were your performances? Did you get to see any other performances?

Frederickx: Our 2 performances went well and we were happy with our presentation. It was nice to show our performance to people from all over Europe. We often went to see other performances. The shows of France and Germany really were of a higher level.

UEG: Which workshops did you attend and what did you think of it?

Frederickx: We partook in 4 different workshops: stretch & balance, tumbling, disco waacking and artistic gymnastics. All were really fun to do! It was nice to experience different methods and training than we are used to. We learned lots of things, and also nice methods to get an efficient but fun warm up. The dancing style, disco waacking, was completely new to us. It turned out better than we thought it would! We also had to choose one workshops to perform during the Closing Ceremony. Of course we chose disco waacking!

 

Thanks Lieze! See you in Liege!