Sanne Wevers has one final routine to perform on the world stage. Ten years after her unforgettable Olympic triumph in Rio, the Dutch gymnastics star has confirmed that the 2026 World Championships in Rotterdam will mark the end of her storied career.
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The 35-year-old made the announcement after podium training, approaching her farewell with gratitude rather than regret. Competing at a home World Championships has given her one last opportunity to celebrate the sport that shaped her life, on the same apparatus that brought her Olympic glory.
“This will be my last World Championships,” Wevers told reporters. “I have a lot of passion for the sport, and I keep enjoying it. But this will be my last World Championships, so maybe that’s why it feels a little bit more special.”
For Wevers, Rotterdam is about more than closing a chapter. It is a chance to enjoy every moment of a career that has taken her from a teenage international debut to the highest step on the Olympic podium. “I just feel really thankful to be here,” she said. “I worked really hard to be here, of course, and now it’s about enjoying every moment.”
Her final World Championships come after a difficult road back from injury following the Paris 2024 Olympics. For a time, she believed her competitive career might already be over. However, she began returning to gymnastics in December 2025 before deciding to make one last push for the Rotterdam event.
“I think it’s very special to be here in the Netherlands, with the home crowd, at a World Championships. My final Worlds, then,” she said. Although the possibility of competing at the Los Angeles 2028 Olympics might have remained tempting, Wevers believes she has reached the right moment to stop. Her decision reflects not a loss of passion, but a sense of fulfilment after years of pushing herself to new limits.
“I really felt it wasn’t finished after Paris, and I feel right now that it is finished after this one,” she explained. “For me, I could go on forever. My passion is enough. But sometimes it’s a better decision to say: it’s enough.”
Wevers first competed at the World Championships in Stuttgart in 2007. By the 2010 edition in Rotterdam, she had already left a lasting mark on the sport: a balance-beam element was named after her. The Wevers, a double turn with the leg held horizontally, reflected the precision and dance-focused difficulty that would become her signature.
Her defining moment arrived at Rio 2016. With Simone Biles among the favorites for balance beam gold, Wevers delivered a routine built around intricate turns and connections rather than relying primarily on acrobatic skills. Her performance earned her the title and made her the first Dutch woman to win an individual Olympic gymnastics gold medal.
The victory also ended an 88-year wait for the Netherlands to claim another Olympic medal in women’s gymnastics after the Dutch team’s gold in 1928.
Wevers added a world silver medal in 2015 and later won European balance-beam titles in 2018 and 2023. She went on to compete at Tokyo 2020 and Paris 2024, extending a career that has spanned three Olympic Games.
Looking back at the gymnast she was in 2010, Wevers sees plenty of change, but one quality has remained constant. “Back in 2010, it was a different time, a different me,” she said. “A different athlete. But I can still see little me enjoying the sport as much as I do today. So that didn’t change in 16 years.”
That enduring love also shaped her view of gymnastics. Wevers welcomed the sport’s growing room for different styles, explaining that she has always tried to work with her natural strengths while continuing to push boundaries.
She has also noticed a change in the atmosphere among gymnasts, describing the sport as more open and supportive than when she began. Athletes, she believes, can now embrace the spectacle of a major competition rather than focusing solely on its pressure.
Taking a look at Sanne Wevers’ incredible comeback after difficult years
Wevers’ career has not followed a straight line. In 2022, she left the Dutch national team after describing persistent, unworkable circumstances involving a teammate. She also criticized what she saw as a lack of leadership in addressing the situation while making clear that her decision was separate from the controversy surrounding her father and coach, Vincent Wevers.
After stepping away, she spent a year without doing gymnastics, focusing instead on fitness and other interests while keeping the possibility of a return open. She eventually came back and won the European balance-beam title in 2023, showing that her competitive drive had survived the difficult period.
Her return after Paris followed a similar process of reflection. Rather than allowing an injury to dictate the end of her story, she chose to test herself one more time in front of a home crowd.
Now, as Rotterdam prepares to host her final World Championships, Wevers is less interested in grand retirement gestures than in enjoying the competition itself. Asked how she might acknowledge the crowd at the end, she offered a simple answer with a smile: “Well, I don’t know. I think I’ll just wave.”
For a gymnast whose control and composure helped define one of the most memorable routines of Rio 2016, that understated farewell feels fitting. Wevers arrives in Rotterdam with her decision made, her achievements secure, and one last chance to compete on the world stage on her own terms.