Vandekawaye, Hella

Gela Vandekawaye began judo at age 8. At the youth level, Gella won all possible awards in the national championships. In 1990, Wandekawaye became the third in the European Youth Championship. In 1990, Gella became the champion of Belgium among adults, and since 1992, Vandekawaye has won the national championship 13 times in a row. In 1992, Gella debuted at the Summer Olympics in Barcelona . At the games the Belgian took part in competitions in the category up to 61 kg. Gella confidently went through two rounds, but at the 1/4 final stage she lost to Frauke Eichhof, a German. In the consolation round for the third place, Vandekawayeh lost to Elena Petrova and was eliminated from further struggle. In 1993, a young Belgian judo wrestler unexpectedly became a world champion, having won in the final silver medalist of the past Olympic Games Israeli woman Yael Arad . In the spring of 1994, Wandekawaye won the gold of the adult European Championship in Gdansk, Poland. 1995 was marked for the Belgian two bronze medals of the largest international championships.

At the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Vandekawayeva was already considered as a contender for medals. The Belgian judoka in the category up to 61 kg was able to reach the final, where she lost to Japanese Yuko Emoto and became a silver medalist of the Games. Since 1997, for five years, Vandekawaye has not given anyone the title of the best European judoka in her weight class. At the world championships of 1997 and 1999, Hella twice stopped on the verge of victory, receiving silver medals.

Two months before the start of the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney, Vandekawayei, during a training camp, tore the transverse ligament of the right knee, and the question arose about the participation of an athlete in the Games ^[1] . Nevertheless, together with her physiotherapist, the athlete was able to get in shape and performed in Sydney. Despite the recent injury, Hella successfully competed in the category up to 63 kg . For the entire tournament, the Belgian judo player lost only once, losing in the quarterfinal only by decision of the judges to the future silver medalist of the Chinese Games, Li Shufang . Two weeks before the start of the 2001 World Cup in Munich, Hella, dropping a kitchen knife, cut her big toe, but nevertheless, the athlete was able to show character and won her second gold of the world championships.

The 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens were not the best for Vandekawai. In the quarterfinal of the Olympic tournament in the category up to 63 kg, the Belgian lost to the Slovenian athlete Urszke Zolnir , and in the consolation tournament she lost to the titled Cuban Driulis Gonzalez and was left without an Olympic medal. In the same year, Vandekawayeya decided to end her sports career.

In 2009, Vandekawayei visited many countries to meet with Belgians living in various countries of the world, visiting Belgian enterprises and Belgian embassies. As part of the trip, she was able to meet with Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin ^[2] and the Dalai Lama ^[3] . In 2015, she was introduced to the hall of fame of the International Judo Federation . ^[four]

• Judo Woman of the Year in Europe (4): 1994, 1998, 1999, 2001
• Athlete of the Year in Belgium (2): 1993, 1997

•   Grand Officer of the Order of Leopold I (2003).

• She wrote a biographical book, “Gella and Eddy, a dizzying duet” ( niderl. Gella & Eddy, een halsbrekend duo ).
• In 2005, a postage stamp of € 0.50 was issued in honor of Gella Vandekawayey ^[5]

• Gella Vandekaveee - Olympic statistics on the site Sports-Reference.com (English)
• Gella Vandekawayeyey - profile on judoinside.com (English)
• Official site