Loena Hendrickx

Loena Hendrickx (; born 5 November 1999) is a Belgian retired figure skater. She is a two-time World medalist (2022, 2023), the 2024 European champion, a three-time European medalist (2022, 2023, 2026), a two-time ISU Grand Prix Final medalist (2022–23, 2023–24), a two-time Grand Prix gold medalist, and a five-time Belgian national champion (2017–2019, 2022–2023).

Hendrickx has finished within the top ten at five European Championships (2017–2018, 2022–2023) and five World Championships (2018, 2021–2024). She represented Belgium at three Winter Olympics (2018, 2022, 2026) finishing sixteenth, seventh, and fourteenth respectively. The most successful Belgian women's skater in history, she is the first-ever World, European, and Grand Prix medalist from Belgium in that discipline.

She has a degree in preschool education.

Career

Early years Hendrickx began learning to skate in 2004. One week following the event, Hendrickx announced her withdrawal from the 2024 Grand Prix de France, citing a need for additional time to prepare for upcoming events. In early November, it announced that Hendrickx had also withdrawn from the 2024 Finlandia Trophy two weeks prior to the event. Regarding this, Hendrickx explained, "I had a good summer and training was going well. But despite that, I felt there was no progress. As the season approached, the pressure increased. And that worked against me."

She announced that she would return to competition at the 2024 CS Golden Spin of Zagreb in early December. However, in December, she withdrew from that event as well after she twisted her ankle in training and said that she was focusing on preparing for the 2025 European Championships in January. In January, she withdrew from the European Championships due to her sprain causing ankle instability, which prevented her from performing some jumps.

In late January, Hendrickx announced that she would miss the rest of the season because she needed to undergo surgery in February to repair her ankle, which had damaged ligaments and had never fully recovered from her injuries in 2019. Hendrickx said that she was not yet ready to stop competing and that after her surgery, she would focus on rehabilitation in hopes of competing at the 2026 Winter Olympics.

2025–2026 season: Comeback, Milano Cortina Olympics, and retirement

Hendrickx resumed training after her surgery. In an interview in early July, she said that while she was still avoiding one jump which she had often hurt her ankle performing, she was happy with the results of her surgery, and she was focusing on the upcoming ISU Skate to Milano competition, where she hoped to win a second Olympic quota for Belgium. At Skate to Milano, she won the bronze medal along with an Olympic quota. In an interview following the event, she said, "The goal for tonight to get my tickets for Milan, and I did it so now I'm very happy... I'm proud of myself because seven months ago, I had surgeries, so it wasn't easy and especially to come back in such a short time, I think it's just amazing and something to be proud of."

In November, Hendrickx captured the bronze medal at 2025 NHK Trophy.

In January, Hendrickx competed at the 2026 European Championships in Sheffield, South Yorkshire, England. During the short program, she took a fall on a planned triple flip and lost points in grade of execution on her attempted triple Lutz-triple toe combination. She ultimately placed fifth in that segment but delivered an overall solid free skate where she placed third. During her free skate, she improvised a new jump layout after turning her opening triple-triple combination into a triple-double, to avoid repeating a double jump more times than the rules allowed. She moved up to second place overall to win the silver medal.

The following month, days before the start of the Winter Olympic Games, it was announced that Hendrickx had changed her Celine Dion short program song from "Ashes" to "I Surrender" due to copyright issues with the former song. Hendrickx expressed disappointment, saying that she had chosen the song four years earlier to skate to during her final Olympics. She also had a bone bruise in her ankle and initially doubted whether she would be able to compete at the Olympics. She ultimately decided to compete and struggled with her jumps during the practice sessions.

At the Olympics, Hendrickx finished in fourteenth place overall after placing seventh in the short program and fifteenth in the free skate. She said afterward that she was proud of her performance after her last-minute issues with her music and injury, though she expressed that she thought her scores were low. When asked whether she would retire, she said that she wanted to "let this achievement settle first and see how my body feels" before making a decision. Hendrickx ultimately opted to withdraw from the 2026 World Championships due to her ongoing injuries.

On June 24, 2026, Hendrickx announced her retirement from competitive skating, saying that while she still enjoyed competing, she did not feel physically able to continue doing so. She said of her retirement, "It is very difficult to officially close a very beautiful chapter." She also stated that she would continue to skate in shows. I Surrender

Ashes

Locura Pinga La alegría La alegría (Mahmun Orhan Remix) The Spot 2024–2025 221.28|2023 Skate America 76.98|2024 World Championships 41.65| 36.00|2023 Skate America 145.53|2021 Gran Premio d'Italia 74.91|2021 Gran Premio d'Italia 72.94|2023 Skate America

Senior level

Junior results

2017–18 season Date Event SP FS Total 30 Aug. – 2 Sept. 2017 2017 JGP Austria 8 51.77 11 83.77 9 135.54 2015–16 season Date Event SP FS Total 30 Sept. – 4 Oct. 2015 2015 JGP Spain 12 46.58 10 91.81 11 138.39 26–30 August 2015 2015 JGP Latvia 8 49.16 15 75.27 14 124.43 2014–15 season Date Event SP FS Total 13–15 March 2015 2015 Coupe du Printemps 2 41.20 3 76.52 3 117.72 19–22 February 2015 2015 International Challenge Cup 5 39.65 3 79.66 3 119.31 25–30 January 2015 2015 EYOF 16 33.97 13 64.58 16 98.55 21–22 November 2014 2015 Belgian Junior Championships 1 40.88 1 65.82 1 106.70 1–4 October 2014 2014 JGP Germany 20 32.36 14 68.87 17 101.23 2013–14 season Date Event SP FS Total 14–16 March 2014 2014 Coupe du Printemps 8 34.35 5 67.13 6 101.48