Just before her third Olympics at Milan 2026, Loena Hendrickx suffered a bone bruise in the same ankle that had previously been operated on. The pain was so intense that she could not walk properly for a couple of days. Still, she made it to the Games. But things did not go her way in the free skate, where a few mistakes brought her score down. She finished 14th overall with a total score of 199.65. After her performance, she said, “It is a bit of a disappointment.” Now, four months later, after years of injuries, she decided to retire.

On 24 June, the 26-year-old announced her retirement at a press conference, saying, “I am putting an end to my career as a top athlete. I still enjoy it, but my body has become a stumbling block.” She also added that while she could continue at her current level, it no longer felt enough in a sport where new young skaters keep rising. “I want to be able to say goodbye with a sense of satisfaction,” she said.

The decision did not come as a surprise. After the Milan-Cortina Olympic cycle, she avoided direct answers when asked about her future. Her story, though, begins far from the pressure of Olympic ice. In 2004, at just four years old, she first stepped into a rink. It was not planned as a career move. She simply spent time there while her brother Jorik trained, skating for fun and copying what she saw. One day, she asked for her own skates. The next day, her mother brought them home. That small moment changed everything.

By six, she was already entering national competitions in Belgium. The path was not easy. Training conditions were modest compared to those of stronger skating nations, and progress came slowly. Her international journey began in the 2014-2015 season under coach Carine Herrygers in Turnhout. Soon after she made her ISU Junior Grand Prix debut but finished 17th in Dresden.

From there, she went on to become the most successful. As in 2022, she won World silver, and in 2023, she won bronze in the same competition and became the first Belgian woman in decades to reach a world podium in her sport.

Looking back on her career, she feels proud of her achievements. “I am very proud of everything I have achieved. As a little girl, I could never have dreamed of achieving so much. I am grateful that I have been able to do all of this.” But this retirement might never have happened at 26 had she not endured a long series of injuries throughout her career.

The relentless fight behind Loena Hendrickx’s success

Long before the medals, Hendrickx was battling a different battle. In elementary school, she was bullied, which hurt her self-confidence as a child. However, even then, skating was her place of safety. When things got tough, she always returned to the ice. The misfortunes continued to mount as her career went on.

At just 16 years old during the 2015-16 season, Hendrickx suffered a spinal fracture that forced her off the ice for nearly six months. Just a year later, she competed at her first European Championships while dealing with persistent foot pain and still managed to finish seventh overall. Then came the road to her first Olympics. During the 2017-18 season, a knee injury forced her to withdraw from three competitions before the PyeongChang Games.

The injuries continued. But nothing like what happened in 2019-20. Hendrickx’s ankle was badly hurt in a training camp in Turkey. She sprained, fractured, and tore 3 ligaments in the same ankle. She would eventually come back on the ice, and the same ankle betrayed her again. Then, in December 2019, disaster struck for a third time. The ankle injury was back again, leading her to withdraw from the European Championships.

By this time, many athletes would have given up. Hendrickx did just the opposite. Three weeks before the World Championships, she had a small tear in her groin muscle and struggled to prepare properly in 2022. She still managed to win silver, though, and became the first Belgian woman to win a World Championship medal in singles’ figure skating.

Then came the worst of all. During the 2024-25 season, a chronic ankle problem threatened to end her career completely. She missed most of the season before doctors concluded that surgery was the only realistic option if she wanted any chance of returning to elite competition.  The following months were spent rebuilding from scratch.

She returned to the ice gradually. At that point, the goal was no longer medals. The goal was simply making it to Milan 2026. And somehow, she did. Against the odds, Hendrickx reached her third Olympic Games. But even then, the challenges were not finished.

Just before the Olympics, she suffered a bone bruise. Then, only days before the competition, copyright issues forced her to change the music for her short program. For most athletes, any one of those setbacks could have been career-defining. For Loena Hendrickx, they became the story of her career.