Nicola PhilippaertsOlympian

About Nicola Philippaerts

Nicola Philippaerts (born 30 July 1993) is a Belgian showjumper from Genk — twin brother of Olivier, son of four-time Olympian Ludo — and a central member of the generation that restored Belgium as a championship-team power. He is world No. 14, a triple senior championship medallist with the mare Katanga v/h Dingeshof, and named to Belgium's team for the 2026 World Championships at Aachen.

The inheritance was extraordinary but not automatic: the twins tried football, tennis and swimming before Nicola settled on ponies at six. The youth record came fast — European Junior silver in 2009, Youth Olympic team gold in Singapore in 2010, European Young Rider individual and team gold in 2011 with Carlos VHP Z, and with the same horse the Falsterbo CSI5* Grand Prix in 2012, aged eighteen. Carlos was then sold: an early education in the family model, where Philippaerts 'We Live Horses' runs elite sport and horse trading as one operation, and where leading horses sometimes leave.

His single Olympic start, at Rio 2016 with Zilverstar T, ended in disqualification under the FEI's article 242.3.1 after an initial elimination for two refusals — marks associated with excessive spur use under the rule then in force. The ground-jury ruling is the controlling result; contemporary reporting recorded his explanation that the injury occurred as he tried to stay mounted through the refusal. It remains the difficult line in an otherwise steadily rising record, and one counterpoint to the patient, welfare-led campaign management that now defines his stable's public practice.

H&M Chilli Willi carried him to the 2017 Belgian title, the 2018 Chantilly LGCT Grand Prix and the Tryon world final before dying after a fall in Wellington in 2021 — weeks before Tokyo selection. From that loss emerged the partnership of his life: Katanga v/h Dingeshof, the compact Cardento mare with whom he took European team bronze and individual fifth in 2021, world team bronze and individual eighth at Herning in 2022, the 2023 La Baule Rolex Grand Prix, and — at last, a first senior gold — the 2025 European team title at A Coruna, jumping clear on each of the first three days. At sixteen she is managed around rest and selected peaks; it delivered the 2026 Shanghai LGCT Grand Prix and now carries Belgium's hopes to Aachen, where Nicola, with Gadget Mouche, Que Sera and a deep family string behind her, projects as the dependable anchor with individual top-ten upside.