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Claire Michel - Triathlete

"I don't think there's anything more unifying than sport. Alongside art and music, it transcends language, culture and background. When you've spent hours pushing through challenges together, a bond naturally forms."

Jade Vansteenkiste - Gymnast

"The success of another athlete can be valuable for yourself as well. Teammates are there to push each other to a higher level. If one person performs better, the rest of the team has to rise to that level too. When you can build that mindset within a team, that everyone brings out the best in each other, you move beyond pure competition. Besides that, seeing each other as rivals every single day is simply exhausting."

Héloïse Doumont - Climber

"What makes me most proud is all the psychological work behind it. Competition is only the endpoint; it isn't the path itself. What truly matters is everything that happens along the way."

Naomi Van den Broeck - Sprinter and hurdler

"When male athletes are highly competitive, they're seen as driven. When women show that same competitiveness, they're often labelled as divas. I don't understand why confidence and being outspoken about your goals are celebrated in men, but judged differently in women."

Claire Orcel  - High Jumper 

“Sport gave me confidence in myself. Performing well made me feel stronger in my body and more secure as a person. I've always been optimistic, but sport showed me that if you truly want something, you can achieve it. If I wanted to reach the World Track and Field Championships, all I had to do was put in the work and keep going.”

Isabel Grevelt - Speedskater

"I think women would understand much better what I'm experiencing as an athlete. I'd love the opportunity to train under a female coach one day, but in speed skating, they simply aren't there."

Leen Haerens - Professor Faculty of Medicine and Health Sciences at Ghent University 

"Working on identity is incredibly important, and it should start at a young age. When an athlete's entire identity is built around sport and that suddenly falls away, whether through retirement or a serious injury, there is often very little left to hold on to. Without other interests or parts of themselves to fall back on, many athletes end up in a very dark place."