(BERLIN) Germany - The days leading up to a major competition such as the FIBA Women’s Basketball World Cup are inevitably filled with a mixture of excitement, anxiety, anticipation and fear. For athletes, those emotions are often intensified by the pressure of performing under the brightest lights.
For Julie Vanloo, however, the days before Belgium’s opening game carried a far heavier weight. As she prepared to take the court for her third World Cup with the Belgian Cats, Vanloo was also grieving the loss of her godfather and mentor, who passed away just days before the tournament tipped off.
There is no pause button for life, even for the biggest moments in a basketball career, and so Vanloo had to find a way to play through the grief, and she did exactly that.
Belgium endured a slow start against Turkiye, but Vanloo provided the spark the Cats needed, erupting for 22 points while shooting 6-of-11 from three-point range. It was an electrifying performance, but for Vanloo, the significance went far beyond the numbers on the scoreboard.
"I had a hard time in the past days and hours. Without the team and the staff, it wouldn't have been possible," she shared with FIBA.
It's unbelievable how much peace they bring into my golden head
"It's unbelievable how much peace they bring into my golden head. All credit to the Belgian Cats. It's unbelievable how much support I feel from them."
For Vanloo, stepping onto the court was more than a game. It was a way of staying connected to the person she had lost, and perhaps a way of carrying him with her onto the World Cup stage. Asked if part of her motivation was to prove that she could do it for him, there was no hesitation.
"Yes, indeed. I do. I know he's watching me from a different place. He's following me."
But beneath the confidence of her words was the reality of what she was still processing. The World Cup may have continued, but her grief had not simply disappeared.
"It's for him. It's for my family at home, who can't be here. We're not ready yet. I'm not ready myself."
Home away from home
Vanloo's 22-point performance had already given Belgium plenty to celebrate. But after the final buzzer, the focus shifted from what she had done on the court to the people who had helped her get there.
Emma Meesseman was named the TCL Player of the Game after a World Cup-high 25 points, nine rebounds and five assists. Yet when she received the trophy, she chose to give it to Vanloo. The gesture quickly became a team moment.
The Belgian Cats gathered around Vanloo, forming an "arm-guard" as she received the trophy on the official broadcast before erupting in cheers around their teammate. It was enough to bring Vanloo to tears.
"Yeah, I said I wouldn't cry today. Well, Emma made me cry," she said. The trophy itself was not what moved Vanloo. It was what it represented.
"I told the coach too. I said to everybody, 'Thank you,' because I am not home and I'm not with my family. I lost somebody very close to me, but being home away from home is something truly special, and I couldn't have done it without them."
Meesseman understood what the moment meant.
"Well, you kind of know that it was a really hard time for her," she said. "She lost somebody in her family, so for her to be able to do that, I'm just very happy for her. To feel that we support her in every single thing."
And perhaps most importantly, Meesseman was simply happy to see her teammate seem like herself, even for a few moments. "I'm glad that we get the threes from her. It's just happy to see her smile on the court again."
That smile, the celebration and the trophy in Vanloo's hands captured what the Belgian Cats had given her throughout the difficult days: a sense of home when home was thousands of kilometres away.
They could not take away her grief or make the loss any easier.
But they could stand beside her through it, and every time Vanloo steps onto the court, the Belgian Cats have made it clear that she will never have to face it alone.
FIBA