Gella Vandecaveye

Gella Vandecaveye (born June 5, 1973 in Kortrijk ) is a former Belgian judoka who won two medals in four Olympic starts. She won two world championships and seven European championships.

Athletic career

The 1.70 m tall Gella Vandecaveye competed in the light middleweight class, until 1997 this was the class up to 61 kg, from 1998 the weight was not allowed to exceed 63 kg. From 1990 and from 1992 to 2004 Gella Vandecaveye won fourteen Belgian national championship titles. In 1989 and 1990 she won bronze medals twice at the European Junior Championships. At her Olympic premiere in Barcelona in 1992 , she finished ninth.

Her international breakthrough came in 1993. In May she was defeated at the European Championships only in the final against Yael Arad from Israel. On October 1, 1993, she won the title at the World Championships . In May 1994 she also won the European Championships . In 1995 she won a bronze medal at both the European Championships and the World Championships . Her second European title followed in 1996 . At the 1996 Olympic Games in Atlanta, she lost to the Japanese Yuko Emoto in the final . In 1997 she won her third European title. In the final of the 1997 World Championships , she lost to the French Séverine Vandenhende . In 1998 and 1999 she won again at the European Championships, in the final of the 1999 World Championships she was defeated by the Japanese Keiko Maeda . The sixth and seventh European championship titles followed in 2000 and 2001 , with winning the bronze medal at the 2000 Olympic Games in between . In July 2001 she succeeded in winning the second title at world championships after 1993 . At the European Championships in 2002 Vandecaveye won bronze, in 2003 she won a silver medal. At her last Olympic start in Athens in 2004 she lost to Driulis González and Urška Žolnir , the two winners of the bronze medal.

Web links

• Gella Vandecaveye in the Sports-Reference database (English; archived from the original )
• Gella Vandecaveye on Judoinside (English)