VANHOOF Elke

General
CONCUSSION ISSUES
She has experienced long-lasting concussion problems after a fall during a warm-up in 2019. She spent over a year out of the sport before returning to competition but in April 2021 she said she still had not completely overcome her injury. "A day after [the fall] I got up and everything started spinning. Because of the concussion, my body was stuck in a fight or flight mode, all the stimuli come in hard, so you can no longer function normally, let alone do sports. At first I didn't know what was going on. I really didn't know how to fix it. I started looking for some help myself in the Netherlands and via the internet I followed a so-called 'concussion course' in Canada. If you break something, you know when it will be over, but with a concussion you can't predict anything. If you want to go cycling, you feel bad, that's all. Only now can I say that I am 99% cured. Physically I'm top again, only mentally I'm not quite right yet. The fear is sometimes still there, the doubt is not completely gone. I still have to overcome that to really throw myself back on a slope. Occasionally some symptoms come to light and that is annoying as a top athlete, such as neck problems, fatigue or headaches. But gradually I'm back to my old self." (sporza.be, 14 Apr 2021; sporza.be, 14 Mar 2020)

RACING AGAINST BOYS
During her younger years she mainly raced against boys as female participation levels in BMX were very low. She says it was a positive thing for her career and has made her a better competitor. "In the beginning I only raced with boys because there were only a few other girls in Belgium who did BMX. So I wasn't used to anything else and thought that was normal. It was good for my development because I did everything the boys did and that made me stronger. It's certainly not a disadvantage to do that from a young age. The boys thought it was normal too, so we were a group of friends. Now there are many more girls internationally who do BMX. I think women are even stronger [than men], I think that's proven. Men are physically stronger, of course, and if you put a male and female BMX man side by side, the man would win. But mentally, I think women are at least as strong." (teambelgium.be, 15 Dec 2020)

PROJECT 91
She is both business manager and coach at Project 91, providing BMX training for children aged 6-12. (project91.be, 27 Apr 2016; Facebook profile, 17 Jun 2016)