Laura Jean Pierre Traets ( bg, Лаура Жан Пиер Траатс, born 13 December 1998) is a

Bulgaria Bulgaria (; bg, България, Bǎlgariya), officially the Republic of Bulgaria,, ) is a country in Southeast Europe. It is situated on the eastern flank of the Balkans, and is bordered by Romania to the north, Serbia and North Macedon ...

n group

rhythmic gymnast Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coordi ...

. She is the

2020 Olympic The , officially the and also known as , was an international multi-sport event held from 23 July to 8 August 2021 in Tokyo, Japan, with some preliminary events that began on 21 July. Tokyo was selected as the List of Olympic Games h ...

champion in the group all-around. She is the 2018 World and 2021 European champion in 5 balls and the 2018 European champion in 3 balls + 2 ropes. She is a two-time (2018, 2019)

World In its most general sense, the term "world" refers to the totality of entities, to the whole of reality or to everything that is. The nature of the world has been conceptualized differently in different fields. Some conceptions see the worl ...

group all-around bronze medalist and the 2017 World group all-around silver medalist. On the junior level, she is the 2013 European group all-around bronze medalist.

Career

Traets started

rhythmic gymnastics Rhythmic gymnastics is a sport in which gymnasts perform on a floor with an apparatus: hoop, ball, clubs, ribbon. The sport combines elements of gymnastics, dance and calisthenics; gymnasts must be strong, flexible, agile, dexterous and coord ...

at the age of four in Levski Triaditza Sports Club.

2013

Traets competed with the Bulgarian junior group at the

European Championships The European Championships is a multi-sport tournament which brings together the existing European Championships of some of the continent's leading sports every four years. The inaugural edition in 2018 was staged by the host cities of Berlin, ...

Vienna en, Viennese , iso_code = AT-9 , registration_plate = W , postal_code_type = Postal code , postal_code = , timezone = CET , utc_offset = +1 , timezone_DST ...

. The group won the all-around bronze medal behind the Russian and Belarusian groups. They then placed fifth in the five hoops final.

2017

Traets began competing with Bulgaria's main senior group in 2017. At the Pesaro World Cup, Traets won the gold medal in the group all-around and the silver medal in the 5 hoops final. The Bulgarian group won another group all-around gold medal at the Baku World Cup and a silver medal in 3 balls + 2 ropes and a bronze medal in 5 hoops. Then at the Sofia World Cup, they won another group all-around gold and silver medals in both apparatus finals behind Ukraine. She competed at the 2017 World Championships alongside

Elena Bineva Elena Slavcheva Bineva ( bg, Елена Славчева Бинева) (born 18 September 1999) is a retired Bulgarian group rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2018 European and 2018 World Group 5 Hoops champion, the 2017 World Group All-around silv ...

Madlen Radukanova Madlen Milenova Radukanova ( bg, Мадлен Миленова Радуканова; born 14 May 2000) is a Bulgarian group rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic group all-around champion and the 2018 World 5 hoops champion. She is a two-ti ...

Simona Dyankova Simona Dyanova Dyankova ( bg, Симона Дянова Дянкова; born 7 December 1994) is a Bulgarian former group rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic group all-around champion and the 2018 World 5 hoops champion. She is a two-time ...

and Teodora Aleksandrova. They won the silver medal in the group all-around behind Russia and the bronze medal in the 3 balls + 2 ropes final behind Russia and Japan. They also placed fourth in the 5 hoops final.

2018

At the Sofia World Cup, Traets and the Bulgarian group won gold in the group all-around and in 5 hoops and bronze in 3 balls + 2 ropes. Then at the Baku World Cup they won gold in both apparatus finals but lost the group all-around to Italy. They won another group all-around gold medal at the Guadalajara World Challenge Cup in addition to winning gold in 3 balls + 2 ropes and silver in 5 hoops. She then competed at the

alongside

, and Stefani Kiryakova. They won the bronze medal in the group all-around behind Russia and Italy and placed fourth in the 5 hoops final. In the 3 balls + 2 ropes final, they won the gold medal, and they won a team bronze medal with the individual juniors. Then at the Kazan World Challenge Cup, they won the group all-around bronze medal behind Italy and Russia, and they won silver in 5 hoops behind Russia. The same group competed at the

World Championships A world championship is generally an international competition open to elite competitors from around the world, representing their nations, and winning such an event will be considered the highest or near highest achievement in the sport, game, ...

Sofia Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and ha ...

where they won the group all-around bronze medal behind Russia and Italy and qualified for the 2020 Olympic Games. They then won the gold medal in the 5 hoops final and placed sixth in 3 balls + 2 ropes.

2019

Traets competed with Stefani Kiryakova,

, and

Erika Zafirova Erika Rosenova Zafirova ( bg, Ерика Росенова Зафирова; born 7 May 1999) is a Bulgarian rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2020 Olympic group all-around champion. She is the 2019 World group all-around bronze medalist and 5 balls ...

during the 2019 season. The group won the gold medal in the 3 hoops + 4 clubs final and the silver medal in the group all-around at the Pesaro World Cup. Then at the Sofia World Cup, they won the group all-around gold medal. She represented Bulgaria at the 2019 European Games where the Bulgarian group won silver in the group all-around by only 0.050 behind Belarus. They also won the silver medal in the 5 balls final, this time behind Russia. In the 3 hoops + 4 clubs final, they won the bronze medal behind Belarus and Ukraine. She then competed at the

Baku Baku (, ; az, Bakı ) is the capital and largest city of Azerbaijan, as well as the largest city on the Caspian Sea and of the Caucasus region. Baku is located below sea level, which makes it the lowest lying national capital in the world a ...

where the Bulgarian group won the bronze medal in the group all-around behind Russia and Japan. They then won the silver medal behind Japan in the 5 balls final, and they placed fifth in the 3 hoops + 4 clubs final.

2021

Traets and the Bulgarian team began their year at the Sofia World Cup, where the team won gold in the group all-around and in both apparatus finals. They once again swept the gold medals at the Baku World Cup. She then competed at the

Varna, Bulgaria Varna ( bg, Варна, ) is the third-largest List of cities and towns in Bulgaria, city in Bulgaria and the largest city and seaside resort on the Bulgarian Black Sea Coast and in the Northern Bulgaria region. Situated strategically in the ...

. The Bulgarian team of the senior group,

Boryana Kaleyn Boryana Nikolaeva Kaleyn ( bg, Боряна Николаева Калейн; born 23 August 2000) is a Bulgarian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2022 European Champion with Ball, Ribbon and in the Team competition, Twice (2021 & 2022) ...

, and

Katrin Taseva Katrin Yankova Taseva ( bg, Катрин Янкова Тасева; born November 24, 1997) is a retired Bulgarian individual rhythmic gymnast. She is the 2017 European Silver medalist with Ribbon, 2019 Grand-Prix Final All-around bronze medalist, ...

finished in fourth place. The Bulgarian group finished fifth in the all-around, but they won gold in the 5 balls final and won silver in the 3 hoops + 4 clubs final behind Israel. Traets was selected to represent Bulgaria at the 2020 Summer Olympics alongside

, Stefani Kiryakova,

, and

. In the qualification round, the group qualified in first place after receiving the highest scores for both of their routines. In the group all-around final, they once again received the highest scores for both routines and won the gold medal with a total score of 92.100, 1.400 points ahead of Russia. This marked the first time a non-Russian team won the Olympic gold medal in the group all-around since Spain won in 1996, and it was the first time Bulgaria won the Olympic group all-around competition. The Bulgarian group withdrew from the

in Kitakyushu, Japan, four days before the start of the competition, because Traets was injured. It was later revealed that Traets had a cervical discal hernia for several years that was now causing severe pain in her right arm. She traveled to Switzerland for surgery in December.

Personal life

Traets' father is from the Netherlands, and until adulthood, she held both Bulgarian and Dutch citizenships.

Detailed Olympic results

References

External links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Traets, Laura Bulgarian rhythmic gymnasts 1998 births Living people Bulgarian people of Dutch descent Gymnasts at the 2019 European Games European Games medalists in gymnastics European Games silver medalists for Bulgaria European Games bronze medalists for Bulgaria Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics European Championships Medalists at the Rhythmic Gymnastics World Championships Gymnasts at the 2020 Summer Olympics Olympic gymnasts for Bulgaria Olympic medalists in gymnastics Olympic gold medalists for Bulgaria Medalists at the 2020 Summer Olympics 21st-century Bulgarian women 21st-century Bulgarian people Gymnasts from Sofia