Grégory Wathelet has been a major force in Belgian show jumping for over 20 years. He has been in the top 30 of the FEI world rankings since 2005 and has won medals at the Olympic Games and European Championships and also has prestigious Grand Prix victories to his name. He has competed in an incredible 4800 jumping events during his career and is a mainstay of the Belgian national team — he was chosen to be the Belgian flag-bearer at the closing ceremony of the Tokyo Olympics. Since 2012, he has run his stable, L’Ecurie Grégory Wathelet, in Clavier, Liège.
Wathelet was born in the city of Huy in September 1980 and grew up surrounded by horses in the surrounding Condroz countryside. He made his show jumping debut at a competition on his family’s premises and launched his own business in 2000. Soon after that, he became the national champion for seven-year-old horses and began competing internationally soon afterwards. He quickly became the Belgian Young Rider champion and became an integral part of the Belgian national team, with his skills as both a rider and a trainer becoming invaluable.
In 2005, Wathelet entered the top 30 of the world rankings for the first time, and he has remained there ever since, reaching as high as the top five. For a time during the late 2000s, he joined a Ukrainian team and competed for them at the European Championships, but despite his success, his loyalty to Belgium saw him rejoin his home country. He became vice European champion in 2015 and helped the Belgian team to triumph at the 2019 Euros. This was followed by Olympic bronze in 2021.
