Since its inception in 1954, Sports Illustrated has annually presented the Sportsman of the Year award to "the athlete or team whose performance that year most embodies the spirit of sportsmanship and achievement." Both Americans and non-Americans are eligible, though in the past the vast majority of winners have been from the United States. Both men and women have won the award, originally called "Sportsman of the Year" and renamed "Sportswoman of the Year" or "Sportswomen of the Year" when applicable.
An ESPY Award is an accolade currently presented by the American broadcast television network ABC except 2020, and previously ESPN, to recognize individual and team athletic achievement and other sports-related performance during the calendar year preceding a given annual ceremony. The first ESPYs were awarded in 1993. Because of the ceremony's rescheduling prior to the 2002 iteration thereof, awards presented in 2002 were for achievement and performances during the seventeen-plus previous months. As the similarly styled Grammy, Emmy, Academy Award, and Tony, the ESPYs are hosted by a contemporary celebrity; the style, though, is lighter, more relaxed and self-referential than many other awards shows, with comedic sketches usually included.
Kim Gevaert is a former sprint athlete and Olympic champion from Belgium.
The Belgian Cup is the main knockout football competition in Belgium, run by the Royal Belgian FA. The competition started in 1908 with provincial selections as the "Belgian Provinces Cup". Starting from 1912 only actual clubs were allowed to partake. As of 1964, the Belgian Cup has been organised annually. Since the 2015–16 edition, the Belgian Cup is called the Croky Cup, for sponsorship purposes. The final traditionally takes place at the Heysel Stadium in Brussels.
Tom Boonen is a Belgian former road bicycle racer, who competed as a professional between 2002 and 2017 for the U.S. Postal Service and Quick-Step Floors teams and a professional racing driver who currently competes in Belcar, having previously competed in the NASCAR Whelen Euro Series. Boonen won the 2005 UCI World Road Race Championships, and was a single-day road specialist with a strong finishing sprint. He won the cycling monuments Paris–Roubaix 4 times and the Tour of Flanders 3 times, among many other prestigious victories, such as prevailing 5 times in the E3 Harelbeke, winning 6 stages of the Tour de France and winning the Overall title of the Tour of Qatar 4 times.
Het Nieuwsblad is a Flemish newspaper that mainly focusses on "a broad view" regarding politics, culture, economics, lifestyle, society and sports.
Tia Hellebaut is a retired Belgian track and field athlete, as well as a chemist, who started out in her sports career in the heptathlon, and afterwards specialized in the high jump event. She has cleared 2.05 metres both indoors and outdoors.
The World Athlete of the Year award is a prize that can be won by athletes participating in events within the sport of athletics organised by World Athletics, including track and field, cross country running, road running, and racewalking.
The Belgian Sportsman of the Year is elected at the end of each year by professional sportjournalists and former winners, annually since 1967. A Belgian Sportswoman of the Year title has been given out since 1975. Top winners include Ingrid Berghmans, Kim Clijsters (8) and Eddy Merckx (6).
Francky Dury is a Belgian football manager. He is unemployed after most recently managing Zulte Waregem, the team he coached for almost 20 years in total.
Athlete of the Year is an award given by various sports organizations for the athlete whom they have determined to be deserving of such recognition.
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year Award is the main award of the BBC Sports Personality of the Year ceremony, which takes place each December. The winner is the sportsperson, judged by a public vote, to have achieved the most that year. The recipient must either be British or reside and play a significant amount of their sport in the United Kingdom. The winner is selected from a pre-determined shortlist. The most recent award-winner is footballer Mary Earps, who won the 2023 award.
The BBC Sports Personality of the Year is an awards ceremony that takes place annually in December. Devised by Paul Fox in 1954, it originally consisted of just a singular award of the same name. Several new awards have been introduced, and currently eight awards are presented.
Eline Berings is a Belgian retired athlete, who competed in the 100 m hurdles. She is the 2005 European junior champion, and took her first medal as a senior by winning the 2009 European Indoor Championships. Her personal best times are 12.72 and 7.92 in the 100 and 60 m hurdles respectively.
Jacques Borlée is a former Belgian athlete, and the father and coach of athletes Olivia Borlée, Kevin, Jonathan and Dylan Borlée. He was voted European Athletics Coach of the Year in 2011.
Nafissatou "Nafi" Thiam is a Belgian athlete specialising in multi-event competition. She is a two-time Olympic gold medalist, winning the heptathlon event at the 2016 Rio and 2020 Tokyo Olympics. Thiam is the only Belgian athlete, male or female, to successfully defend an Olympic title and only the second woman after Jackie Joyner-Kersee to win back-to-back Olympic titles in the event.
Belgium competed at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, from 5 to 21 August 2016. Since the nation's official debut in 1900, Belgian athletes had appeared in every edition of the Summer Olympic Games, with the exception of the 1904 Summer Olympics in St. Louis. The Belgian team consisted of 108 athletes, 70 men and 38 women, across nineteen sports.
Marieke Vervoort was a Belgian Paralympic athlete with reflex sympathetic dystrophy. She won several medals at the Paralympics, and she received worldwide attention in 2016 when she revealed that she was considering euthanasia.
The Flemish Sportsjewel is an annual award given to a Flemish sportsperson or -team, either following a remarkable achievement or at the end of an exceptional career in sports.
Annie Lambrechts is a Belgian roller skating champion. She was awarded the Belgian Sportsman of the year prize in 1981. The same year she was also given the Belgian National Sports Merit Award. She won a total of 140 Belgian titles, 22 European titles, 2 gold and 2 bronze medals at the 1981 World Games. Between 1964 and 1981 she won 19 worldtitles. She was also the first Belgian to win the Flemish Sportsjewel in 1982.
