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With the Olympics, a nice chance to show the most important sports in Belgium to the eWorld.

1. Football (or soccer for the American folks)

Football is one of the most practiced sports in Belgium. On professional level, the history of Belgium is far more prestigious than the achievements of the last few years.

During the 70's and 80's, some Belgian clubs managed to win major European trophies: Club Brugge, RSC Anderlecht and KV Mechelen.

In 1980 and 1986, the Belgian national team managed to get 2nd place in the European championship (1980) and 4th in the World Cup in Mexico 1986.

The current situation in Belgian football is quite complicated. With players at major football clubs (Chelsea, Manchester City, Atlético Madrid, Benfica,...), you would think that Belgian football is doing great. But the clubs are having a hard time to get even through the group stages on European level and the national team hasn't managed to qualify for a major tournament since 2002...


Paul Van Himst, one of the best Belgian football players of all time.


2. Road cycling

Belgium is one of the "founding nations" in road cycling. Since the beginning of the 20th century, Belgian cyclists managed to win lots of races, with a peak in the 60's and 70's.

Belgium has 2 of the 5 major classic races: the tour of Flanders and the oldest, still running race, Liège-Bastogne-Liège (others are Milan-San Remo, tour of Lombardia and Paris-Roubaix).

Belgian cyclists are mostly specialized in classic races (often with cobblestones). Some (older) Flemish riders have the reputation of being a "Flandrien", which means that they ride through every condition of weather, and that they are not afraid to attack. The "last of the Flandriens" is Briek Schotte (multiple winner of the tour of Flanders).

Some of the biggest names in cycling are Belgian: Eddy Merckx (5x tour de France, 7x Milan-San Remo,...), Lucien Van Impe, Herman van Springel,...

Currently, cycling is one of the most viewed sports in Belgium. Every time there gathers a crowd for major and minor races. This is also due to the wins of Tom Boonen (3x tour of Flanders, 4x Paris-Roubaix,...), Phillipe Gilbert (1x Liège-Bastogne-Liège, 2x Paris-Tours,...) and the good results of Jurgen van den Broeck in the tour of France (2x 4th in the overall standings).





3. Tennis

Belgium hasn't got a big tradition in tennis, but due to individual achievements from Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, this is certainly a big sport in Belgium.

Justine Henin won 4 times Roland Garros in Paris and won in total 7 Grand Slam tournaments (and was 5 times a runner-up). She was several times No. 1 in the world ranking. In 2004, she won the tennis tournament on the 2004 olympics in Athens.

Kim Clijsters on the other hand was also several times No. 1, with 4 Grand Slam wins and 4 times runner-up. She won 3 times the "World Championships" in tennis.

Both players got several awards on international and national level.





4. Judo

Several olympic medals were brought home due to judo. Some medallists are Gella Vandecaveye, Ulla Werbrouck, Harry van Barneveld and now also Charline van Snick.




5. Athletics

A long history here. The first great Belgian achievements were made by Gaston Reiff on the 5000m. He won a gold medal in London 1948. Several years later, in the 60's and 70's, other long distance runners like Emiel Puttemans, Gaston Roelants and Ivo van Damme impressed the world.

Sadly, the talent Ivo van Damme (2x silver on the Olympics of Montréal) died in a car crash. Later, a yearly meeting was organized in Brussels to remember him. Now the Memorial van Damme is the most important yearly meeting, as it finishes the athletics season and due to the enthousiastic crowd. Several World Records were beaten at this meeting.

Now, the Belgian athletics is among the top of Europe, after several gold medals of Kim Gevaert and Tia Hellebaut, who also won the high jump at the Olympics in Beijing 2008. The Borlée brothers even managed to reach the world leading tables.





6. Cyclo-cross

A curious sport, mostly participated in Flanders, is cyclo-cross. This sport uses slightly modified road bikes, but here the riders have to cross steep hills, muddy areas, stairs,... Big in Flanders, but the rest of the world has only some big riders like Stybar, Groenendaal,... 10-20 years ago, the Swiss and Italian riders were also very important, but they have not fully continued in this tradition.






7. Others

Several sports are increasing in awareness: hockey, sailing (due to the bronze medal of Evi van Acker), rugby, shooting (silver medal) and rowing.


Silver in Beijing 2008