After a long absence from the sport following the 2012 Olympic Games, Céline van Gerner of the Netherlands is back. After easing her way into competition last fall, she spent a lot of time working bigger skills to increase her start value, and it’s already paying off. At the WOGA Classic international elite competition held in Frisco, Texas last weekend, Céline won all-around silver and beam gold, where she posted a 14.750 for her incredible routine. With Rio right around the corner, van Gerner has her eyes set on a second Olympics, which is never easy, but she has the skills and attitude to make it happen.

We checked in with Céline to chat about her career, her comeback, and her training plans for the coming months. Check it out!

First off, congratulations on your great competition at WOGA last weekend! On a scale of 1-10, how do you feel about your performance?

Thank you! I felt very happy, I guess around an 8. Because yeah, I had a mistake on bars, but vault, floor, and especially beam were very good!

What would you say the highlights were for you at the WOGA Classic? Was there anything you thought you needed to work on?

It was my first competition since last Worlds, where I finished bars and beam with C dismounts. So my biggest goal was to compete with my D dismounts again. I fell on my full-in on bars, but that didn’t disappoint me at all. I was glad I did it again and I still have time to fix that. My outstanding highlight definitely was beam. I nailed every landing and finished with my double tuck again!

I think you surprised a lot of people with how incredible that routine was! It was definitely a highlight of the competition. Do you have any planned upgrades on this event? Or just dream skills in general?

First of all, I took out my roundoff layout to be sure I could do my dismount with less pressure from the routine itself. So that’s one I need to bring back in again. And I’m working on some new elements and connections.

What about your other events? Is there anything you’re working on adding?

My floor routine needs upgrading. Towards Worlds I’ll be working on that! A full-in is definitely coming back.

Have you been doing anything else while in Texas either for fun or gymnastics-related? We loved the video of you trying out the rings at CrossFit!

Haha, I went to CrossFit with the daughter of the host family where I was staying during the week. Did a little WOD. And tried out the muscle-up on rings. It took me 15 minutes until I got it. I also went to a museum, and of course went shopping.

You had about a two year break between the Olympics and coming back to big elite competition last year. Can you tell us what you were up to during that time and what made you decide to train seriously again?

I had surgery again in summer 2013. And then at the end of 2013 I just needed a break, so I decided to step out for a little while. I started dancing and fitness at the gym, because I needed to do some working out. I really loved dancing, by the way. And for the very first time in my life, I went skiing. Loved it. At the end of April I had to get my ankles checked out again. The x-ray and MRI both showed really good results, so that’s what started my thoughts about a possible gymnastics future again. I realized that if I wanted to try it out one more time, I had to start immediately. The Olympics were only two years away, I was out of shape, and I hadn’t done gymnastics for awhile. If I didn’t try, I would probably regret it for the rest of my life. So I decided to give it one more try, and I was beyond happy that it worked out really well!

When you came back to competition for the friendly meet in France last fall, you won the all-around and helped your team to a top finish, and then had the best finish out of anyone on the Dutch team at World Championships. How did you feel about these initial stages of your comeback?

It felt so good to be back on stage again, helping the team, and knowing what progress I made in such a short period of time.

What became your biggest focus after World Championships? Do you and your coaches have any sort of training plan, especially with making it to a second Olympic Games becoming a real possibility?

My biggest focus became upgrading my routines. My coach and me made a plan for it, and last weeks competition was step one in terms of upgrading. So I keep on going, and aiming to come back stronger every competition towards Worlds, the test event, and then Rio.

The Netherlands finished 10th at Worlds qualifications and has a pretty good shot of qualifying a full team to the 2016 Olympics. As a team, what do you think the biggest things you’ll be working on in the months leading up to Rio?

D-scores! Because overall we were very clean in our execution. And staying healthy…we need everyone in our small country.

Finally, looking back at your career thus far, what has been your proudest moment?

That definitely will be the London Olympics, where I scored my personal best at the right time [Céline earned a 57.232 to place 12th in the all-around final]! Being there with the coach I’ve been working with since I was 10 years old, that was one of the proudest moments in my career.

Thank you so much, Céline! We can’t wait to see what you do next and will be cheering you on as you do it!

Article by Lauren Hopkins