Clijsters was born in the Flemish Region of Belgium. She is the daughter of Lei Clijsters, a former international footballer, and Els Vandecaetsbeek, a former national gymnastics champion. Lei Clijsters died of lung cancer on 4 January 2009. Clijsters says that she inherited footballer's legs from her father and a gymnast's flexibility from her mother. Kim's younger sister Elke finished 2002 as the ITF World Junior Doubles champion but retired in 2004 after back injuries. Clijsters started playing tennis at age five with her cousins, and her parents took her to watch matches around Europe. Her favourite tennis player growing up was Steffi Graf.  In December 2003, Clijsters announced her engagement to Australian Lleyton Hewitt, but their relationship ended in October 2004. She is still affectionately nicknamed "Aussie Kim" by Australians. In October 2006, Clijsters announced her engagement to American basketball player Brian Lynch, who was then playing for Euphony Bree in Clijsters' hometown of Bree. In an interview with Sportweekend (a sports programme on Belgian Flemish television), Clijsters said that she was retiring to start a family. Clijsters and Lynch married privately on 13 July 2007, at 6 am at the Bree city hall. She was married by the mayor, with sister Elke, Lynch's brother Pat Lynch, and both sets of parents present.  Clijsters gave birth to daughter, Jada Elle, on 27 February 2008, at 1:35 pm at the Vesalius hospital in Tongeren. On 18 September 2013, Clijsters gave birth to a son, Jack Leon Lynch. In October 2016, she gave birth to her third child, a son, Blake Richard Lynch.  The family splits their time, spending autumn in Belgium and summer at their home in Wall Township, New Jersey.

Answer this question "what did Els do for a profession?" by extracting the answer from the text above.
former national gymnastics champion.