Loena Hendrickx: I was really in a big dark hole
After a pitch-black season and major ankle surgery, figure skater Loena Hendrickx is completely on schedule to grab her Olympic ticket in September. "I really thought I couldn't do it anymore."
"I have really been in a big black hole"
Gazet van Antwerpen Stad en Rand
July 2, 2025
A ligament was shortened, an internal brace fitted, bone fragments and a cyst were removed, and inflammation tissue was scraped away. "The scar is nicely positioned next to the knob on my ankle, so that it doesn't repeatedly open up during skating.” In April, the Arendonk native was already back on the ice. “Five minutes of skating straight ahead to get used to the ice, super boring. A small turn already felt like a great victory.”
“In my private life, everything is going well and that helps enormously. It gives me peace of mind that I have found the right person”
Meanwhile, Hendrickx is a lot further in her process, as we saw on Tuesday. She performed her new free skate – to soulful Southern European music – in its entirety, although the most difficult triple jumps were temporarily replaced by double variants. “My right ankle is much stronger now. I feel I can jump much more explosively. But I now dare to do the triple toe loop jump (the take-off with a pick of the skate on the ice, ed.) with which I can really train. We will need every day, week, and month to get ready, but I am positive. Loena is happy.”
The contrast with the somber Loena we saw last winter is gigantic. “I have really been in a mega black hole,” she confesses. “A burnout. I was mentally exhausted. I trained so hard, it just wasn't coming out and I didn't know why. I thought: I'm too old to skate at the top level, I can't do it anymore. I doubted my mental strength. While in reality, my ankle was just broken. Since that operation, I feel good again and I am positive about the future.”
That is also thanks to the love she finally found this year with her new boyfriend, Olivier. “In my private life, everything is going well and that helps enormously. It gives me peace of mind that I have found the right person. I won't continue for too much longer as a figure skater and I also have other dreams: a little house, a little garden, a little child.”
That first dream is already being realized quickly, as the couple will start building this summer. “He is a carpenter, my father can do a lot in construction and my two oldest brothers are roofers. So I don't have to worry too much about it. Hopefully, I can live in our own little house after the Olympic Games.”
If Hendrickx wants to get to Milan, she must finish in the top five in Beijing in just over two months. A realistic goal, she thinks now. “That Russian (the 18-year-old phenomenon Adelia Petrosian, ed.) will undoubtedly stand head and shoulders above the rest. And Anastasiia Gubanova (European champion of 2023, ed.) will also be good. But if I reach my level, it should be possible. Otherwise, I don't deserve it and I don't want it either. Three Olympic Games has always been the goal. I know I can do it.”
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