Willemsen was initially a track and field athlete and specialized in javelin throwing , her best performance is 52.70 meters. In 2007 she switched to bobsleigh after she and her push-puller Eva Willemarck won a casting show on Belgian television. Since then, her career in Belgium, which is actually not very keen on winter sports, has been followed and supported by large sections of the population. Since 2007 she has also been a member of the national team. Willemsen initially started in races in the European Cup and North American Cup . Her first participation in major events was 6th place at the 2009 Junior World Championships and 18th place at the 2009 Bobsleigh World Championship in Lake Placid . In November 2009 she made her debut in the World Cup ; her best season placement was 14th place in Winterberg . Together with Willemarck, Willemsen was 14th at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver . In the following season , she finished four 14th places and a 15th place in five World Cup races. At the World Championships , she and her new pusher Anouska Hellebuyck finished 17th after Eva Willemarck had switched to the pilot's seat herself. In the winter of 2011/12 she finished 15th again. At the 2012 Bobsleigh World Cup she was 16th and could only leave Willemarck behind. In the 2012/13 World Cup , she finished tenth in Altenberg as the best result ; At the 2013 World Championships , she was able to achieve 19th place with pusher Hanna Mariën .
In the 2013/14 World Cup season , Elfje Willemsen achieved her first top 10 results in the World Cup and was placed between ranks 6 and 12 in all eight races of the season, finishing ninth in the overall World Cup. At the European Championships in 2014 she finished fourth with Mariën. Willemsen and Mariën were the only Belgian participants in the Olympic Games in Sochi in the discipline of bobsleigh and achieved sixth place. Willemsen made the final breakthrough with the new pusher Annelies Holthof in the 2014/15 season . In the first two races in 2015 in Altenberg and Königssee , the duo achieved second places behind Elana Meyers Taylor and Cherrelle Garrett or Cathleen Martini and Lisa Marie Buckwitz and thus their first podium positions in the World Cup. In the overall standings, she was fourth, as well as fourth at the European Championships and seventh at the World Championships with pusher Sophie Vercruyssen . In the first race of the season of the 2015/16 World Cup , she finished second behind Kaillie Humphries and Melissa Lotholz together with Vercruyssen, which they achieved again in the third race in Königssee. In February 2016, she won silver with Vercruyssen at the European Championships in St. Moritz, which was the first Belgian European Championship medal in bobsleigh.
Belgium
