Teja Belak (born 22 April 1994) is a Slovenian

artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG), which designs the Code of Points and regulates ...

who represented Slovenia at the

2016 Olympic Games ) , nations = 207 (including IOA and EOR teams) , athletes = 11,238 , events = 306 in 28 sports (41 disciplines) , opening = 5 August 2016 , closing = 21 August 2016 , opened_by = Vice President Michel Temer , cauldron = Vanderlei Cordeiro d ...

. Additionally she is the

2019 European Games , translation: Time for bright victories! , nations participating = 50 , athletes participating = 4,082 , events = 200 in 15 sports , opening ceremony = 21 June , closing ceremony = 30 June , officially opened ...

champion on vault. She primarily competes on the

FIG World Cup FIG World Cup refers to a number of events organized by the International Gymnastics Federation (FIG) across seven competitive gymnastics disciplines: 1) acrobatic gymnastics, 2) aerobic gymnastics, 3) men's artistic gymnastics, 4) women's artistic ...

circuit.

Early life

Belak was born 22 April 1994 in

Ljubljana Ljubljana (also known by other historical names) is the capital and largest city of Slovenia. It is the country's cultural, educational, economic, political and administrative center. During antiquity, a Roman city called Emona stood in the ar ...

. She lived across the street from a gym and took up the sport when she was six years old.

Gymnastics career

2010–11

Belak turned senior in 2010; as a result she started competing on the FIG World Cup circuit primarily as a vault specialist. She made her senior debut at the Cottbus World Cup where she finished sixth. She next competed in

Doha Doha ( ar, الدوحة, ad-Dawḥa or ''ad-Dōḥa'') is the capital city and main financial hub of Qatar. Located on the Persian Gulf coast in the east of the country, north of Al Wakrah and south of Al Khor, it is home to most of the coun ...

where she finished fifth. She made her first podium by winning gold at the

Maribor Maribor ( , , , ; also known by other #Name, historical names) is the second-largest city in Slovenia and the largest city of the traditional region of Styria (Slovenia), Lower Styria. It is also the seat of the City Municipality of Maribor, th ...

World Cup held in her home country of

Slovenia Slovenia ( ; sl, Slovenija ), officially the Republic of Slovenia (Slovene: , abbr.: ''RS''), is a country in Central Europe. It is bordered by Italy to the west, Austria to the north, Hungary to the northeast, Croatia to the southeast, an ...

. Next she competed at the Moscow World Cup where she finished sixth. In October Belak competed at the

Ostrava Ostrava (; pl, Ostrawa; german: Ostrau ) is a city in the north-east of the Czech Republic, and the capital of the Moravian-Silesian Region. It has about 280,000 inhabitants. It lies from the border with Poland, at the confluences of four rive ...

World Cup where she finished fourth. The following month she competed in

Osijek Osijek () is the fourth-largest city in Croatia, with a population of 96,848 in 2021. It is the largest city and the economic and cultural centre of the eastern Croatian region of Slavonia, as well as the administrative centre of Osijek-Baranja ...

where she finished seventh. She ended the season competing in

Stuttgart Stuttgart (; Swabian: ; ) is the capital and largest city of the German state of Baden-Württemberg. It is located on the Neckar river in a fertile valley known as the ''Stuttgarter Kessel'' (Stuttgart Cauldron) and lies an hour from the ...

but she failed to qualify to the vault final when she finished 13th in qualification. In 2011 Belak didn't compete for the first half of the year. She returned to competition in September at the Maribor World Cup where she placed second on vault behind

Valeria Maksyuta Valeria Vladimirovna Maksyuta (russian: Валерія Володимирівна Максюта russian: Валерия Владимировна Максюта, he, ולריה מקסיוטה) is a former artistic gymnast who represented Ukraine ...

of Israel. She next competed at the

World Cup where she placed sixth. She ended the season competing at the Ostrava World Cup where she once again won silver behind Maksyuta.

2012

In 2012 Belak made her debut at the Doha World Cup where she won bronze on vault behind

Giulia Steingruber Giulia Steingruber (born 24 March 1994) is a retired Swiss artistic gymnast. She is the 2016 Olympic and 2017 World bronze medalist on vault. Additionally she is the 2015 European all-around champion, a four-time European vault champion (2013 ...

of Switzerland and

Nadine Jarosch Nadine Jarosch (born 28 April 1995) is a German gymnast. She competed for the national team at the 2012 Summer Olympics The 2012 Summer Olympics (officially the Games of the XXX Olympiad and also known as London 2012) was an international ...

of Germany. Next she competed at the Osijek Grand Prix where she failed to qualify to the vault final but placed fourth on balance beam. In May Belak competed 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, ...

where she finished 11th on vault during qualifications and was the third reserve for the final. In June she competed at the Maribor World Cup she won her second World Cup gold medal on vault and additionally won bronze on the balance beam. At the

Ghent Ghent ( nl, Gent ; french: Gand ; traditional English: Gaunt) is a city and a municipality in the Flemish Region of Belgium. It is the capital and largest city of the East Flanders province, and the third largest in the country, exceeded in ...

World Cup she finished seventh on vault. In November Belak competed at the Ostrava World Cup where she finished eighth on vault.

2013

2013 was a breakout year for Belak as she competed in numerous high-profile international events beyond the World Cup series. In March she competed at the World Cups in Cottbus and Doha, placing fifth on vault and sixth on balance beam in Doha. In April Belak competed at the

where she qualified to the vault final and finished in fourth place, finishing .300 points behind the two silver medalists

Larisa Iordache Larisa Andreea Iordache (; born 19 June 1996) is a former Romanians, Romanian Artistic gymnastics, artistic gymnast. She represented Romania at the 2012 Summer Olympics, Romania at the 2012 Olympic Games, winning a bronze medal with the team, a ...

and

Noël van Klaveren Noël van Klaveren (born 27 November 1995 in Alphen aan den Rijn) is a Dutch artistic gymnast Artistic gymnastics is a discipline of gymnastics in which athletes perform short routines on different apparatuses. The sport is governed by the F ...

. The following week she competed at the Ljubljana World Cup in her hometown; she finished eighth on both vault and balance beam. In June Belak competed at the

Mediterranean Games The Mediterranean Games is a multi-sport event organised by the International Committee of Mediterranean Games (CIJM). It is held every four years among athletes from countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea in Africa, Asia and Europe. The fir ...

Mersin Mersin (), also known as İçel, is a large city and a port on the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean coast of southern Turkey. It is the provincial capital of Mersin Province, Mersin (İçel) Province. It is made up of four municipalities and dis ...

. Although she qualified to the vault final in second place, she ended up placing sixth. Additionally she helped Slovenia finish sixth as a team. The following month she competed at the

Summer Universiade The Universiade is an international multi-sport event, organized for university athletes by the International University Sports Federation (FISU). The name is a portmanteau of the words "University" and "Olympiad". The Universiade is referred t ...

where she finished seventh on vault and helped Slovenia finish 11th as a team. In October Belak represented Slovenia 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, ...

Antwerp Antwerp (; nl, Antwerpen ; french: Anvers ; es, Amberes) is the largest city in Belgium by area at and the capital of Antwerp Province in the Flemish Region. With a population of 520,504,

. During

qualifications Qualification is either the process of qualifying for an achievement, or a credential attesting to that achievement, and may refer to: * Professional qualification, attributes developed by obtaining academic degrees or through professional exper ...

she finished 11th on vault and was the third reserve for the vault final.

2014

Belak began the season competing at the Cottbus World Cup. During qualifications she finished 18th on vault and 9th on balance beam. Next she competed at the Doha World Cup where she won silver on vault behind

. The following month she competed at the Osijek World Cup where she won the bronze on vault. Belak next competed at the

. During qualifications she placed 15th on vault and 35th on balance beam and therefore did not qualify for any event finals. She ended the season competing at the Anadia World Cup where she won gold on vault and silver on balance beam.

2015

Belak began the season competing at the Cottbus World Cup where she won the bronze medal on vault behind

Oksana Chusovitina Oksana Aleksandrovna Chusovitina (russian: Оксана Александровна Чусовитина; born 19 June 1975) is an eight-time Olympic gymnast who has competed for the Soviet Union, Uzbekistan, and Germany. Chusovitina's career a ...

and compatriot

Tjaša Kysselef Tjaša Kysselef (born 27 April 1993) is a Slovenian artistic gymnast and a member of the Slovenian national team. Throughout her career, she has primarily competed as a vault specialist, and has been successful on the FIG World Cup circuit. She ...

. Additionally she finished eighth on uneven bars. The following week she competed in Doha where she once again won the bronze medal on vault. Continuing on the series she next competed in her hometown of

where she won the silver medal on vault behind Chusovitina. Belak competed at the

where she qualified to the vault final in seventh place and placed 32nd on uneven bars. During event finals she finished eighth on vault. After the European Championships Belak continued competing at the World Cup series. She won the silver medal on vault at the Varna World Cup, once again behind Chusovitina. Afterwards she competed in Anadia where she placed sixth on vault and eighth on uneven bars. In September she competed at the Osijek World Cup where she finished eighth on both vault and uneven bars. Later that month she competed at the Hungarian Grand Prix where she finished second in the all-around. As for event finals she won silver on vault behind

Boglárka Dévai Boglárka Dévai (born 12 November 1999) is a Hungarian female artistic gymnast. She is the 2018 European champion and 2017 European bronze medalist on vault. She participated at the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships in Glasgow. D� ...

, bronze on uneven bars, and placed fifth on balance beam. In October Belak represented Slovenia at the

Glasgow Glasgow ( ; sco, Glesca or ; gd, Glaschu ) is the most populous city in Scotland and the fourth-most populous city in the United Kingdom, as well as being the 27th largest city by population in Europe. In 2020, it had an estimated popul ...

. She placed 58th in the all-around during qualifications and 15th on vault; she did not qualify for any individual event finals.

2016

Belak began the season competing at the Doha World Cup where she won silver on vault behind

. She next competed in Cottbus where she placed seventh on vault and eighth on balance beam. Next she competed in Ljubljana and won silver on vault, bronze on uneven bars, place fourth on balance beam, and seventh on floor exercise. In April Belak was selected to represent Slovenia at the Olympic Test Event. She finished 52nd in the all-around and qualified as an individual to the

Rio de Janeiro Rio de Janeiro ( , , ; literally 'River of January'), or simply Rio, is the capital of the state of the same name, Brazil's third-most populous state, and the second-most populous city in Brazil, after São Paulo. Listed by the GaWC as a b ...

. In May Belak competed at the Varna Challenge Cup where she finished eighth on uneven bars. In June she competed at the

; she finished sixth on vault. Belak finished the season competing at the

. During

she only competed on vault where she finished 19th and did not qualify to the vault event final.

2017

In March Belak 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 ...

and

World Cups A world cup is a global sporting competition in which the participant entities – usually international teams or individuals representing their countries – compete for the title of world champion. The event most associated with the concept i ...

, earning bronze on vault at both. In April she competed at the

where she placed seventh on vault. She spent the remainder of the season competing in the World Cup series, earning bronze medals in

Koper Koper (; it, Capodistria, hr, Kopar) is the fifth largest city in Slovenia. Located in the Istrian region in the southwestern part of the country, approximately five kilometres () south of the border with Italy and 20 kilometres () from Triest ...

and

Varna Varna may refer to: Places Europe *Varna, Bulgaria, a city in Bulgaria **Varna Province **Varna Municipality ** Gulf of Varna **Lake Varna **Varna Necropolis *Vahrn, or Varna, a municipality in Italy *Varniai, a city in Lithuania * Varna (Šaba ...

and finished eighth in Osijek.

2018

Belak began the 2018 season once again competing at the

in Baku and Doha, finishing sixth and eighth on vault respectively. In June Belak competed at the

. She helped Slovenia finish sixth in the team final. Individually she won the bronze medal on vault and placed seventh on balance beam. In August Belak competed at the

where she finished eighth on vault. In early October she competed at the Leverkusen Cup in Germany where she helped Slovenia win gold as a team; she posted the second highest score on balance beam. Belak was selected to represent Slovenia at the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar. She finished 16th on vault and did not qualify to the event final. Belak ended the season competing at the Cottbus World Cup, which was the first World Cup event to be used to accumulate points towards qualification to the 2020 Olympic Games. While there Belak finished eighth on vault.

2019

Belak began the season competing at the Baku and Doha

but did not qualify for any event finals. In April she competed at the

and qualified to the vault final in second place. However, during the final she fell on her double twisting yurchenko and finished in eighth place. She next competed at the Osijek and Koper Challenge Cups where she won gold and silver on vault respectively. In June Belak represented Slovenia at the

European Games The European Games is a continental multi-sport event in the Olympic Games, Olympic tradition contested by sportsperson, athletes from European nations and several European Olympic Committees#Notes, transcontinental countries. The Games were ...

. While there she won the gold medal on

vault Vault may refer to: * Jumping, the act of propelling oneself upwards Architecture * Vault (architecture), an arched form above an enclosed space * Bank vault, a reinforced room or compartment where valuables are stored * Burial vault (enclosure ...

, finishing ahead of

Angelina Melnikova Angelina Romanovna Melnikova ( rus, Ангели́на Рома́новна Ме́льникова, , ɐnɡʲɪˈlʲinə ˈmʲelʲnʲɪkəvə; born 18 July 2000) is a Russian artistic gymnast. With eleven Olympic and World medals, she is the jo ...

of Russia. In August and September Belak competed at the Mersin and Szombathely Challenge Cups, winning gold on vault and silver on balance beam in Mersin and winning silver on both vault and balance beam in Szombathely. In October Belak competed at the

. During qualifications she finished 15th on vault and did not qualify for the event final. The all-around competition was used as Olympic qualification for individuals; Belak placed 144th and did not qualify to the

2020 Olympic Games 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 host city during the 1 ...

. She ended the season competing at the Cottbus World Cup where she finished second on vault behind Yu Linmin of China.

2020

Belak competed at the Melbourne World Cup where she placed seventh on vault. She next competed at the Baku World Cup, qualifying to the vault final in first place. However event finals were canceled due to the

COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan The COVID-19 pandemic in Azerbaijan is part of the worldwide pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 () caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (). The virus was confirmed to have spread to Azerbaijan when its first case was ...

. The

FIG The fig is the edible fruit of ''Ficus carica'', a species of small tree in the flowering plant family Moraceae. Native to the Mediterranean and western Asia, it has been cultivated since ancient times and is now widely grown throughout the world ...

later ruled that the results of qualification would be used for point distribution for Olympic qualification.

2021

On May 31 Belak and her partner, fellow Slovenian gymnast Žiga Šilc, welcomed a son.

2022

Belak returned to competition in March where she competed at the Cairo World Cup, less than a year after giving birth. She was the first reserve on balance beam but received a 0 on her first vault and did not qualify for the final. Belak next competed at the Baku World Cup where she qualified to the vault final in second place. During the event final she won bronze behind

and

Csenge Bácskay Csenge Mária Bácskay (born 4 April 2003) is a Hungarian artistic gymnast and the 2018 Youth Olympic silver medalist on vault. Additionally she was a member of the team who won bronze at the 2020 European Championships. Early life Csenge ...

. At the Osijek Challenge Cup she won silver on vault behind Valentina Georgieva. In October Belak won gold on vault at the Mersin Challenge Cup.

Competitive history

References

External links

database.fig-gymnastics.com

Profile
at ''Postanivojak.si''
www.intylgymnast.com

YouTube.com
{{DEFAULTSORT:Belak, Teja 1994 births Living people Slovenian female artistic gymnasts Sportspeople from Ljubljana Gymnasts at the 2016 Summer Olympics Gymnasts at the 2019 European Games Olympic gymnasts for Slovenia Mediterranean Games bronze medalists for Slovenia Mediterranean Games medalists in gymnastics Competitors at the 2018 Mediterranean Games European Games competitors for Slovenia European Games gold medalists for Slovenia European Games medalists in gymnastics 20th-century Slovenian women 21st-century Slovenian women