28 Facts About Epke Zonderland

Epke Jan Zonderland was born on 16 April 1986 and is a Dutch artistic gymnast and the 2012 Olympic gold medallist on high bar.

Epke Zonderland is a 4-time Olympian and has taken 3 World Championships golds on high bar at the 2013,2014 and 2018 World Championships, the first man to secure this feat on that apparatus.

Epke Zonderland has two brothers and one sister who are international gymnasts.

Epke Zonderland enrolled to study medicine at the University of Groningen in 2006.

Epke Zonderland took 12 years to complete his degree in medicine as he was pursuing his career in gymnastics at the same time, and qualified as a medical doctor in 2018.

Epke Zonderland reached his first international success as a junior in 2004.

At the World Cup meeting in Glasgow on the same discipline he won the silver medal and in Tehran, Epke Zonderland claimed his first World Cup win and the gold medal.

Later, in September at the World Championships in Stuttgart Epke Zonderland finished 4th on the horizontal bar, which earned him a qualification for the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing.

At the 2008 Summer Olympics, Epke Zonderland reached the high bar final in which he finished seventh.

At the 2012 Summer Olympics, Epke Zonderland won an Olympic gold medal in the high bar with a personal best score of 16.533.

Epke Zonderland's routine included a triple combo of Cassina-Kovacs-Kolman, then the most difficult release combination.

Epke Zonderland's performance was regarded by many as one of the top performances of the 2012 games.

At the 2013 World Championships in Antwerp, Epke Zonderland became world champion for the first time.

Epke Zonderland performed a double combo of Cassina-Kovacs followed by Kolman-Gaylord 2 with a stuck double-twisting double layout dismount.

In 2014, Epke Zonderland won the championship title again on high bar at the 2014 European Championships in Sofia, Bulgaria.

Epke Zonderland successfully defended his world title at the 2014 World Gymnastics Championships in Nanning, China.

In 2016, Epke Zonderland sprained his fingers again during training in June, just before the 2016 Summer Olympics.

Epke Zonderland failed to defend his Olympic title at the Olympics after falling in his high bar routine.

Epke Zonderland then competed at the 2017 World Championships in Montreal.

At the 2018 World Championships in Doha, Qatar, Epke Zonderland won gold on the high bar at the age of 32.

Epke Zonderland's routine included two double release combinations, a Cassina to Kovacs, followed by a Kolman-Gaylord 2.

Epke Zonderland became the first man to win three high bar gold medals at the World Championships.

Epke Zonderland competed down under at the 2019 Melbourne World Cup in Melbourne, Australia, from 21 to 24 February 2019.

However, after activating the tiebreak procedure, Epke Zonderland was relegated to the silver medal because Miyachi's execution score number was higher than his own.

At the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, Epke Zonderland did not qualify for the individual horizontal bar finals after ranking 23rd with a score of 13.833 due to a fall in the qualification rounds.

Epke Zonderland was named Dutch Sportsman of the year in 2009 for his silver medal in high bar at the 2009 World Championships.

Epke Zonderland was selected Sportsman of the Year for a second time in 2011 after he won the European Championships, then again for the next two consecutive years after he won the 2012 Olympic and the 2013 World championships.

In 2012, Epke Zonderland was appointed a Knight of the Order of Orange-Nassau in recognition of his Olympic championship victory on the horizontal bar at the Summer Olympics in London.