Finally, Something Akin to a Solution in the Belgian Crisis

It's been a while since we last posted any news from Belgium, where a group of national team members recently left the national training center because they did not want to work under the new head coach, controversial Frenchman Yves Kieffer. The last thing we heard was that 8 rebels were training at Wevelgem (Aagje Vanwalleghem's club) under 3 of their former coaches, and that when Yves Kieffer and his wife Marjorie Heuls finally showed up in Ghent on January 15, only a handful of girls were there to meet them.


Belgian national champion Aagje Vanwalleghem
(Photo: Sing Lo/Comaneci Salto)

Now, finally, more news about the situation has emerged, and from a very reliable source, Sporza.

It seems the rebels' insistence on getting former head coach Gerrit Beltman reinstated has finally paid off, to some extent. Minister of Sport Bert Anciaux is making funds available for the reinstatement of Beltman, who will guide national champion Aagje Vanwalleghem and the other rebels at the Wevelgem club. The girls themselves will have to pay the wages of the other coaches to be employed at the club (presumably the same coaches who were previously fired from the Ghent center for sticking with Beltman). The girls' parents are looking for private sponsors to help them carry the financial burden of employing the coaches. Meanwhile, 6 other national team members will remain at the national training center in Ghent, where they will train under former French head coach Yves Kieffer and his wife Marjorie Heuls. One of the 6 girls remaining in Ghent is Gaëlle Mys, who represented Belgium in Beijing.

Els De Nil, the official representative of the parents whose daughters have moved to Wevelgem, explained the situation to Sporza.

"Two weeks ago, we, along with Aagje and Beltman, spoke to Minister Anciaux. The next day he spoke to the other party," said De Nil. "The Minister established that the 2 parties were irreconcilable, as there is a serious crisis of trust. So elite sports manager Ivo Van Aken proposed this setup, and on Sunday we agreed to it."

De Nil continued, "It was a difficult decision to make, as our children were building up social lives in Ghent. But there was too much injustice in the situation. Basically, what is happening at the moment constitutes a rift in the Flemish Gymnastics Federation. When we had our meeting with Van Aken, a member of the Federation admitted that they had made mistakes, but insisted that management would never step down. Our children have become the victims of a power struggle. But they are prepared to take the risks associated with the move to Wevelgem, to Aagje's club. The club is willing to help us out (financially). We are now looking for host families for the girls."

A happy ending for all parties involved? That remains to be seen. The Ministry of Sport will only pay Gerrit Beltman's wages; the other coaches will have to get their wages elsewhere. It is to be hoped that the 8 rebel girls will find sponsors to help them carry the financial burden. At a time when much more famous athletes than them are losing their sponsorship deals, that may be a tall order.

Yves Kieffer to Coach Flemish Girls After All

A few weeks ago we reported on the coaching scandal that was brewing in Belgium. Quick recap for those of you who missed it: last September, the Flemish Gymnastics Federation, Gymfed, fired its Dutch head coach, Gerrit Beltman, for being too nice to the girls (he agreed with his gymnasts that they needed more time off from school and training), then invited controversial French coach Yves Kieffer (who coached Emilie Lepennec and Isabelle Severino to their respective Olympic and European titles) to take his position. In the end, their negotiations with Kieffer came to nothing because a pro-Beltman journalist started raking up mud on the former French head coach, who had been accused of mental cruelty by a couple of French gymnasts and been the subject of a large investigation by the FFG, the French Gymnastics Federation. After a quick investigation and a consultation with the FFG, Gymfed announced that it still wanted to work with Kieffer, but the flamboyant Frenchman himself declined the offer, citing a "hostile environment." Exit Kieffer, or so it seemed.


Yves Kieffer

Not so. Gymfed just announced that Kieffer will become their head coach after all. The three remaining coaches at the Ghent training center (Marja Beltman, Rene Poutsma and Sofie Naert, all of whom wanted Gerrit Beltman to be reinstated) have been sacked, and Kieffer and his wife Marjorie Heuls will take over in January, with two Russian coaches who have been in Belgium for a while, Iouri Kiritchenko and Valentina Soldatenkova (Gaelle Mys's coach). Gymfed hopes they will help the Belgian team qualify to the 2012 Olympics.

It is uncertain what national champion Aagje Vanwalleghem will do now that Kieffer has been appointed head coach of the Flemish team. Vanwalleghem previously stated in no uncertain terms that she did not want to work under Kieffer. There are those who believe that Vanwalleghem, who recently won the bronze on vault at the Madrid World Cup Final, will start training at Dutch club Bosan TON, where her former coach Gerrit Beltman (to whom she is very close) is coaching now and where she would be surrounded by the cream of Dutch gymnastics, but our sources tell us Gymfed is trying hard to keep Vanwalleghem in Belgium in some way or another. We'll be interested to see what solution they come up with.


Aagje Vanwalleghem

World Cup Final: A Few Responses

Earlier we gave you some Dutch reactions to the team's mixed fortunes at the World Cup Final. We thought we'd post some other responses from around the globe as well...

Women


Lauren Mitchell

Beam winner Lauren Mitchell made a few headlines in Australia: "Aussie gymnast makes history in Madrid" (Sydney Morning Herald) and "Lauren Mitchell beaming in triumph" (Daily Telegraph), among others. Mitchell's local newspaper Perth Now wrote a nice piece about her in which the head of her club, Liz Chetkovich (also Australia's national gymnastics TV commentator) said Mitchell's result was simply exceptional. "For Lauren to win a World Cup final against such a strong field confirms that she is an outstanding world-class gymnast," Chetkovich said. "She's shown incredible character to bounce back from the disappointment of not making the beam final in Beijing to make the podium six times during the World Cup season. Last night's result just caps it all off."

Mitchell herself is still to comment on her recent success.

According to Globoesporte, Daniele Hypolito and her coach, Ricardo Pereira, were disappointed after the beam final. "[Daniele] did well in warmup. Everything looked normal," said Pereira. "But in the competition, she didn't make her three-element mount and fell. And Dani needed to stick that mount to have medal chances." Hypolito normally mounts beam with a difficult roundoff - layout - ff- layout to two feet combination.


Daniele Hypolito during the mount that cost her a medal (photo: UOL Esporte)

Despite her disaster on bars and her disappointing result on beam (she would have medaled if she hadn't missed her mount), Daniele Hypolito herself felt she had done "reasonably well" in the tournament. "The year is nearly over and I didn't obtain excellent results. But I'll be back in 2009, different and better, with an eye to the next Olympics," Daniele said. She emphasized that she has no retirement plans for the time being: "I'm not going to retire yet. The new Code of Points is in my favor, so I'll be able to go on firm and strong until 2012," Hypolito said.

In Romania, a tired-looking Sandra Izbasa, who was beaten to the floor gold by Cheng Fei and Jiang Yuyuan, reportedly said after the floor final: "I knew I wasn't going to win after each pass I did, but it's important to know how to lose with a smile on your face. I'm not at all upset. I'll be the Olympic champion on floor for the next four years and that's what matters to me."

In Belgium, bronze medalist Aagje Vanwalleghem, who has suffered many serious injuries over the last few years and has just recovered from a major knee injury, told Sporza that she was very pleased with the vaults she had shown at the World Cup Final.

"I'm glad and relieved that I can still perform as well as this after such a long recovery period," said Vanwalleghem. "I think you can say I'm back, both physically and mentally. It took a long time for my knee to heal completely, but now I can vault well again."


Aagje Vanwalleghem won the bronze on vault in Madrid (photo: Belga)

Vanwalleghem also said she's working on more difficult vaults, but doesn't want to become a vault specialist. "I'd like to stay an all-around gymnast, so I'm not going to specialize on one event just yet," she said. "Also because it's easier for an all-arounder to qualify for the Olympics." Vanwalleghem, who competed in Athens but missed Beijing because of her knee injury, has her heart set on London 2012.

Men

The French media hardly had anything to say about Thomas Bouhail and Yann Cucherat's gold medals in Madrid. A quick "So Beijing wasn't an accident, after all" in L'Equipe and "Congratulations!" on the FFG's website was all the boys got for their gold-medal-winning efforts. Way to make your athletes feel appreciated, guys.


Thomas Bouhail (photo: Volker Minkus/FIG)

As to the Brazilian media, we've already posted Diego Hypolito's ecstatic response to his gold medal on floor. According to Globoesporte, Hypolito was "more than satisfied" with his sixth-place finish on vault, as well: "I think I did well in my two vaults and I'm more than satisfied with my making the final on this event. My main objective was to do well on floor, and I did just that. I'm leaving Madrid with the feeling of having fulfilled my duty," Hypolito said.

He also announced changes for next year: "Next year I'll make a few small changes. Perhaps I'll do a more difficult Hypolito, with a few added touches. We'll see. First I'm going to make the most of my vacation." We guess that will be the upcoming trip to Disney World (with his sister Daniele and Jade Barbosa) he announced earlier.


Diego Hypolito (center) on the medal stand with Kohei Uchimura and Alexander Shatilov

We'll post the Chinese reactions to their World Cup successes in a separate entry, and we hope at some point to be able to post some Russian responses as well.

So Now Belgium Has a Coaching Scandal Too...

As some of you undoubtedly know, France had its own version of the Karolyi and Brazilian coaching scandals last year. The accusations were less bad, but the case still ended with the head coach of the national team resigning.

What happened was that 47-year-old Yves Kieffer, the man who coached Emilie Lepennec to the 2004 Olympic gold on bars and Isabelle Severino to the 2005 European title on floor, was accused of mental cruelty by a former gymnast, Cloe Briand, who told a French radio station that she lived in constant fear of Kieffer. "It was all too militaristic and cold," said Briand. "I was so afraid of his torrents of abuse that I'd vomit before workouts."


Yves Kieffer (photo: Action Press)

At the time, Isabelle Severino defended Kieffer, saying he was a hothead and a very demanding taskmaster but a good coach. For its part, the French Gymnastics Federation (FFG) conducted an extensive investigation, interviewing 90 gymnasts who had worked with Kieffer. Kieffer was accused of verbal excess, irregular behavior, and a dominant and arrogant attitude, and received an official warning from his employer, the French Ministry of Sport. A few months after the first accusations, he resigned as the French team's head coach, devoting himself to research instead. According to certain sources, he was fired and forbidden to coach children again.

Exit Kieffer, or so it seemed.

Over the last few weeks Kieffer has been in the news again, not in France but in neighboring Belgium. Belgium, you see, recently sacked its own women's head coach (Dutchman Gerrit Beltman, who used to coach 2001 World and 2002 European silver medalist on bars Renske Endel), not because of allegations of cruelty, but rather because of the opposite. Reportedly Beltman wanted his gymnasts to have more time off from training and school than the Flemish Federation, Gymfed, was prepared to give them. The dispute ended acrimoniously, and despite repeated protests from his co-workers and gymnasts Beltman was fired, leaving Belgium without a head coach.

Enter Kieffer.


Aagje Vanwalleghem (photo: Jasmin Schneebeli-Wochner)

A few weeks ago, officials of the Flemish Gymnastics Federation, seemingly oblivious of the the scandal surrounding Kieffer in France, contacted the flamboyant Frenchman to offer him the position of head coach of the Flemish team, which is led by Aagje Vanwalleghem (second on vault at the recent DTB Cup and second on vault and bars in Ostrava) and Gaelle Mys, who has one of the coolest floor exercises around. (If you haven't seen Mys on floor, do yourself a favor and check out her 2008 routine here. Best choreography of the year, we think.)

A Belgian gymnastics journalist who clearly sided with Beltman then took it on himself to inform the nation and Gymfed of the accusations against Kieffer. Gymfed President Rik Dombrecht was surprised when confronted with the particulars of his candidate's reputation. "I heard a complaint was filed with the Nantes court, but it was a complaint against the FFG, not against Mr. Kieffer. And last week the Nantes court actually acquitted the FFG of the charges. I wasn't aware there was an FFG report on Mr. Kieffer, nor that he was given an official warning. He never told me that."

As it happened, the Belgian journalist discovered, the FFG hadn't been acquitted. The Briand case hadn't been found inadmissible by the Nantes court, as Kieffer had stated, but transferred to another court, Saint-Nazaire. And the charges (unacceptable behavior and violence against minors) were leveled at Kieffer rather than at the FFG.

Most damning of all, it transpired that there was another court case against Kieffer. In Bordeaux another gymnast had sued Kieffer for unseemly behavior, and again, Gymfed wasn't aware of it.


Gaelle Mys, who represented Belgium at the Olympics (photo: AFP/Getty Images)

On December 1 Gymfed confirmed in a press release that it still wanted to work with Kieffer, saying that as far as the federation was concerned, the allegations about the court cases against Kieffer had been sufficiently refuted. However, the Frenchman had decided not to take the job, citing "a hostile environment" (by then national champion Aagje Vanwalleghem and a few coaches had indicated that they didn't want to work with him) and "the media's negative attitude" toward him.

The Gymfed press release also stated that an FFG legal expert had told Gymfed that the Nantes court had found in favor of Kieffer. Said the FFG: "It's a form of rehabilitation for a coach who received a simple warning that did not come with an injunction forbidding him to coach kids, as has been wrongfully alleged." Gymfed also stated that the FFG had told them that their internal report on Kieffer, based on interviews with 90 gymnasts, actually painted a positive picture of the coach.

Sounds like the door is open for Kieffer to return to the French team, doesn't it?

Meanwhile, Belgium is still without a head coach, and the situation is getting bad.

Over the last couple of weeks several high-ranking Belgian coaches have gone on strike in an effort to make Gymfed reinstate Gerrit Beltman, which Gymfed says it has no intention of doing. The gymnasts, too, are clamoring for Beltman's return. On November 22, Belgian newspaper Nieuwsblad published a two-page interview (reprinted here) with national champion Aagje Vanwalleghem. The headline read: "Can I please have my coach back?"

In the interview Vanwalleghem praised her former coach to the skies, saying: "He's a brilliant technician who knows exactly how to get you ready for a competition. He can take you from completely out of shape to Olympic peak shape in just three months. He has an excellent long-term plan and knows how to make sure that everybody has the same goals. Some people think he lacks people skills. Of all my teammates, I've been with him the longest. I've been with him since I was eleven, so it's been nearly ten years now. His people skills have improved tremendously over that period. He really is a coach now, encouraging you when things aren't going well and giving you a pat on the shoulder. He has even consulted a sports psychologist. Parents, gymnasts, coaches, judges, and Gymfed's medical staff don't understand why he was fired. I'm very disillusioned."


Aagje Vanwalleghem and Gerrit Beltman (photo: Belga)

Vanwalleghem, who missed the Beijing Olympics because of a knee injury but is back in the gym now and working on two new vaults to become even more competitive on the event, expressed a desire to go on competing until the 2012 Olympics, but said in no uncertain terms that she'd need Beltman to do so.

Meanwhile, Beltman has reportedly signed a nine-month contract with Bosan TON, which is well on its way to becoming Holland's new super club. He's said he'd like to return to Belgium, but so far, Gymfed has said that this is not an option. Perhaps the recent Kieffer affair will make them reconsider their stance.

Undoubtedly to be continued.