As a sub-area of culture in Belgium, sport is now considered to fall under the responsibility of the 3 Belgian communities (the Dutch-speaking Community, the French-speaking Community and the German-speaking Community). With the exception of football and field hockey, all other major sport federations in Belgium are split into 2 major federations (a French-speaking federation and a Dutch-speaking federation).
The Belgian Football Association, the governing body of football in Belgium, was founded in 1895[3] and was one of the founding members of the FIFA in 1904.[4] The first Belgian championship was held in 1895 among the 10 founding teams of the Belgian Football Association, and was won by RFC de Liège. A second level was added to the Belgian league in 1905, a third level in 1926 and a fourth one in 1952. R.S.C. Anderlecht is the most successful Belgian team both at national (32 Belgian champion titles) and international (6 European titles) levels. Other successful clubs include Club Brugge K.V. (13 Belgian champion titles), R. Union Saint-Gilloise (11 national titles), Standard Liège (10 national titles) and K.V. Mechelen (4 national titles and 2 European titles). The club with the most Belgian Cup titles is Club Brugge KV (10) followed by RSC Anderlecht (9) and R Standard Liège (6). The 8 European titles won by Belgian clubs were claimed between 1976 and 1988.
The Belgium national team played its first game in 1904 against France. The match ended in a 3–3 draw. Since then, Belgium has qualified for 12 out of 20 World Cups, finishing 3rd in 2018, and for 4 out of the 12 UEFA European Football Championships in which it entered, finishing second in 1980. At the Summer Olympics, Belgium won the gold medal in 1920 and secured a fourth place in 2008.
Cycling is a very popular sport in Belgium. It is governed by the Royal Belgian Cycling League, which is split between the Dutch-speaking WBV and the French-speaking FCWB. Many Belgian cyclists have been successful, and some of the greatest cycle races take place in Belgium, especially in road bicycle racing, though other bicycle racing disciplines such as mountain bike racing or track cycling also count a number of Belgian champions and races. The best Belgian cyclist of all time, Eddy Merckx, nicknamed the Cannibal, has won the Tour de France and Giro d'Italia 5 times each, won the Vuelta a España once, the UCI Road World Championship 3 times, had many classic cycle race wins and set the hour record, among other achievements. Belgium has been one of the most successful countries in road cycling since the origins of the sport, with one of the oldest races being held in Belgium, Liège–Bastogne–Liège, which was first held in 1892.
At the Olympic Games, Belgium has won four gold medals for road cycling, with two victories for the Belgian men's team in the team time trial (at the 1948 and 1952 Summer Olympics) and two for André Noyelle and Greg Van Avermaet for the individual race. Belgium has had the most World Championship gold medals (25) with 3 victories by Rik Van Steenbergen and Eddy Merckx and 2 by Georges Ronsse, Briek Schotte, Rik Van Looy and Freddy Maertens. Belgian cyclists have also performed very well in the 3 grand tours. Ten cyclists have won the Tour de France 18 times between them, making of Belgium the country with the most Tour de France wins behind France. Besides Eddy Merckx, Philippe Thys won the most prestigious tour 3 times while Firmin Lambot and Sylvère Maes won it twice. The last Belgian winner at the Tour de France however was Lucien Van Impe in 1976. At the Giro d'Italia, Belgium has had 7 wins, being the second most successful country in terms of wins after Italy. Michel Pollentier and Johan De Muynck (the most recent Belgian to win the Giro in 1978) are with Eddy Merckx the 3 Belgian winners of this tour. Belgium also has had 7 wins at the Vuelta a España, with 2 wins by Gustaaf Deloor, the first winner of the race in 1935 and 1936. The last Belgian winner of the Spanish tour was Remco Evenepoel in 2022.
Many Belgian cyclists have won one of the five monument cycle races. At the Tour of Flanders, Belgium counts 68 wins in 96 editions with 3 wins for Achiel Buysse, Eric Leman, Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen. Roger De Vlaeminck holds the record of wins at Paris–Roubaix together with Tom Boonen (4), and Belgium is the most successful country in this race with 55 wins in 110 editions. Liège–Bastogne–Liège has been won 59 times out of 98 by Belgian cyclists. Eddy Merckx holds the record of the most individual wins (5). At the Giro di Lombardia, Belgium counts 12 titles in 105 editions, with only Italy performing better. Milan–San Remo was won 7 times by Eddy Merckx, who holds the record of the most wins, and Belgium has won 20 times out of 103, being the second most successful country after Italy in this race. Unlike the grand tours, which have not been won by a Belgian since 1978, cyclists from Belgium are still successful in the monument races. At Paris–Roubaix, Tom Boonen has won 4 times and Johan Museeuw 3 times since 1996, and Peter Van Petegem and Johan Van Summeren have also won the race once each. At the Tour of Flanders, Belgium has 12 wins since 1993, with 3 by Johan Museeuw and Tom Boonen, 2 by Peter Van Petegem and Stijn Devolder and 1 by Andreï Tchmil and Nick Nuyens. In the other 3 monuments, Belgians has been less successful recently, with Andreï Tchmil being the only Belgian winner of Milan–San Remo (in 1999) since Fons De Wolf in 1981. Philippe Gilbert has been the only Belgian winner of the Giro di Lombardia since Fons De Wolf in 1980, with wins in 2009 and 2010 and only 4 Belgians have won Liège–Bastogne–Liège since Joseph Bruyère in 1978: Eric Van Lancker in 1990, Dirk De Wolf in 1992, Frank Vandenbroucke in 1999 and Philippe Gilbert in 2011.
Tennis in Belgium is governed by the Royal Belgian Tennis Federation, which is split into the French-speaking AFT and the Dutch-speaking VTV. Belgium is well known in tennis for the two champions Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, who were both WTA World No. 1 ranked player in the 2000s. Both players also retired respectively in 2007 and 2008, before they came back to the competition respectively in 2009 and 2010. Clijsters won 41 WTA titles, including three US Open titles and the Australian Open in 2011. Henin won 43 WTA titles, including seven Grand Slam titles (four French Open titles, two US Open titles and the 2004 Australian Open), and a gold medal at the 2004 Summer Olympics.
Four Belgian athletes have won Olympic gold medals: Nafissatou Thiam (heptathlon, 2016), Tia Hellebaut (high jump, 2008), Gaston Roelants (3000 m steeplechase, 1964) and Gaston Reiff (5000 m, 1948). The other Belgian Olympic medalists in athletics are Etienne Gailly (bronze for marathon in 1948), Roger Moens (silver for 800m in 1960), Emiel Puttemans (silver for 10,000 m in 1972), Karel Lismont (silver for marathon in 1972 and bronze in 1976), Ivo Van Damme (silver for 800 m and 1500 m in 1976) and the Belgium Women's 4 × 100 m led by Kim Gevaert (silver in 2008).
Over the history of the European Athletics Championship, Belgium has had five gold medals, ten silver medals and seven bronze medals. The Golden Spike is awarded annually to the season's best Belgian male and female athletes.
Axel Hervelle, the face of Belgium's basketball team for almost a decade.
Basketball is governed by the Royal Belgian Basketball Federation. Their last tournament was the EuroBasket 2013 in Slovenia, where they won three games. The best result of the Belgium national team was a 4th place at the EuroBasket 1947. The Basketball League Belgium is the top-flight national division and is played between 8 teams, with the current major clubs being BC Oostende (12 Belgian champion titles and 11 Belgian Cups), Antwerp Giants (9 national titles[8] and 5 Belgian Cups[9]), Spirou Basket Charleroi (8 national titles and 5 Belgian Cups), Liège Basket (3 national titles and 4 Belgian Cups), Mons-Hainaut (1 Belgian Cup) and Verviers-Pepinster. The clubs of Racing Mechelen (15 national titles and 9 Belgian Cups between 1964 and 1994), Royal IV Brussels (7 national titles and 5 Belgian Cups between 1939 and 1973) and Semailles (6 national titles and 4 Belgian Cups between 1946 and 1958) have been successful but are now defunct. Belgium has organized the EuroBasket 1977. The biggest venues for basketball in Belgium are the Spiroudome in Charleroi (7,560 seats), the Country Hall Ethias Liège in Liège (5,600), the Lotto Arena in Antwerp (5,218) and the Sea'Arena in Ostend (5,000).
The Belgium men's volleyball League is the highest level championship for men's clubs in Belgium. Noliko Maaseik (12 national titles and 11 Belgian Cups) and Knack Randstad Roeselare (5 national titles and 6 Belgian Cups) are the most successful clubs in the last years. Roeselare is the only Belgian club to have won a European cup, namely the CEV Top Teams Cup in 2002. They also have 2 second places at the Challenge Cup. Maaseik best results at international level are 2 lost finals of the CEV Champions League in 1997 and 1999 and a lost final of the CEV Top Teams Cup in 2008.
Rugby union is a growing sport in Belgium which, due to the growing mediatisation around the sport, especially during the 2003 and 2007 World Cup, is enjoying a rise in popularity. The game is formally organised by the Belgium Rugby Federation and has a surprisingly long history. Belgium has 57 clubs and 10,071 players according to the International Rugby Board who currently rank Belgium as tier two nation ranked at twenty-sixth in the world.
Rally
Rally is popular sport in Belgium and although no money prizes can be won, many talented drivers participate in the Belgian Championships. The rally sport is overseen by the RACB organization. Belgium is known for its technical special stages on narrow tarmac roads and steep ditches.
Approximately 5 million of the 17 million people in the Netherlands are registered to one of the 35,000 sports clubs in the country. About two thirds of the population older than 15 years participates in sports weekly.
Édouard Louis Joseph, Baron Merckx, better known as Eddy Merckx, is a Belgian former professional road and track bicycle racer who is the most successful rider in the history of competitive cycling. His victories include an unequalled eleven Grand Tours, all five Monuments, setting the hour record, three World Championships, every major one-day race other than Paris–Tours, and extensive victories on the track.
1971 in sports describes the year's events in world sport.
Kim Antonie Lode Clijsters is a Belgian former professional tennis player. Clijsters reached the world No. 1 ranking in both singles and doubles, having held both rankings simultaneously in 2003. She won six major titles, four in singles and two in doubles.
Axel Eddy Lucien Jonkheer Merckx is a Belgian former professional road bicycle racer and the son of five-time Tour de France champion Eddy Merckx. He is team director of UCI Continental team Hagens Berman Axeon.
Jean-Michel Saive is a Belgian former professional table tennis. Saive competed at seven consecutive Olympics between 1988 and 2012, and he was also a winner in singles at European Championship 1994.
Jörg Roßkopf is a former professional German table tennis player who is currently the head coach of the German Men's National Table Tennis Team. As a player, he won the title in Men's Doubles at the 1989 World Table Tennis Championships and the silver medal at the 1992 Summer Olympics in Barcelona, with Steffen Fetzner as his partner. In men's singles, he won the bronze medal at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta and the gold medal at the Table Tennis World Cup in 1998. As a coach, he was awarded the ITTF Star Coach award in 2017.
Sport in Spain in the second half of the 20th century has always been dominated by football. Other popular sport activities include basketball, tennis, cycling, handball, American football, rally, motorcycling, judo, Formula One, water sports, rhythmic gymnastics, bullfighting, golf, and skiing.
Unlike in most countries in Europe, sports in Luxembourg are not concentrated upon a particular national sport, but encompasses a number of sports, both team and individual. Despite the lack of a central sporting focus, over 100,000 people in Luxembourg, which has a total population of only 610,000, are licensed members of one sports federation or another.
A wide array of sports are played in Armenia. Popular sports in Armenia include football, basketball, volleyball, and ice hockey. Further, the country sends athletes to the Olympics in boxing, wrestling, weightlifting, judo, gymnastics, track and field, diving, swimming, and shooting. Armenia's mountainous terrain provides great opportunities for the practice of sports like skiing and rock climbing. Being a landlocked country, water sports can only be practiced on lakes, notably Lake Sevan. Competitively, Armenia has been very successful at chess, weightlifting, and wrestling at the international level. Armenia is also an active member of the international sports community, with full membership in the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), Federation of International Bandy (FIB), International School Sport Federation, International Ice Hockey Federation (IIHF), among others. It also hosts the Pan-Armenian Games.
Sport in Romania are an important part of the country's culture. Romania has risen to prominence in a number of sporting areas in recent decades. Association football is the most popular sport in Romania, a nation of 20 million. The most successful club is Steaua Bucharest, who were the first Eastern European side to win the European Cup and the European Supercup in 1986. Romania is one of only four national teams from Europe that took part in the first World Cup in 1930. The Romania national football team has taken part in seven FIFA World Cups and had its most successful run during the 1990s, when they reached the quarterfinals of the 1994 FIFA World Cup, losing to Sweden in the penalty shootout. Romania was ranked third by FIFA in 1997.
Sport in Serbia plays an important role, and the country has a strong sporting history. The most popular sports in Serbia are football, basketball, tennis, volleyball, water polo and handball.
Sport in Europe tends to be highly organized with many sports having professional leagues. The origins of many of the world's most popular sports today lie in the codification of many traditional games, especially in Great Britain. However, a paradoxical feature of European sport is the remarkable extent to which local, regional and national variations continue to exist, and even in some instances to predominate.
Sport in Croatia has significant role in Croatian culture, and many local sports clubs as well as the Croatian national squads enjoy strong followings in the country. The most enduring sport by far in Croatia is football, and is played on amateur and professional levels amongst all age groups across the entire country. Several other major team sports are handball, basketball and water polo, with clubs in all parts of Croatia. Ice hockey is another popular team sport, namely in the Croatian interior. The most popular individual sports in Croatia are tennis, alpine skiing, and swimming, and to some extent table tennis and chess. Various amateur sport games are popular in Croatia, notably picigin.
Sport in Denmark is diverse. The national sport is running, but club sport is football with the most notable results being qualifying for the European Championships six times in a row (1984–2004) and winning the Championship in 1992. Other significant achievements include winning the Confederations Cup in 1995 and reaching the quarter final of the 1998 World Cup. Other popular sports include handball, esports, cycling, sailing sports, badminton, ice hockey, swimming, and recently also golf. A few youths also play basketball.
Sports in Portugal are important in Portuguese culture. High-profile, successful competitive athleticism and sportsmanship in Portugal can be traced back to the time of Ancient Rome. Gaius Appuleius Diocles was a noteworthy charioteer born in Lamego who became one of the most celebrated athletes in ancient history. He is often cited as the highest-paid athlete of all time. Football is the most popular sport in Portugal. Other than football, many other professional or semi-professional well organized sport competitions take place every season in Portugal, including basketball, swimming, athletics, tennis, gymnastics, futsal, rink hockey, team handball, volleyball, surfing, canoeing and rugby union championships among the hundreds of sports played in this country.
Greece has risen to prominence in a number of sporting areas in recent decades. Football in particular has seen a rapid transformation, with the Greece national football team winning the UEFA Euro 2004. Many Greek athletes have also achieved significant success and have won world and olympic titles in numerous sports during the years, such as basketball, wrestling, water polo, athletics, weightlifting, with many of them becoming international stars inside their sports. The successful organisation of the Athens 2004 Olympic and Paralympic Games led also to the further development of many sports and has led to the creation of many world class sport venues all over Greece and especially in Athens. Greek athletes have won a total 161 medals for Greece in 17 different Olympic sports at the Summer Olympic Games, including the Intercalated Games, an achievement which makes Greece one of the top nations globally, in the world's rankings of medals per capital
Cycle racing is a popular sport in Belgium. It is governed by the Royal Belgian Cycling League since 1882, which became a founding member of the International Cycling Association in 1892 and later of the Union Cycliste Internationale in 1900. Since 2002, the Royal Belgian Cycling League is composed of the Wielerbond Vlaanderen (WBV), which governs the cycle racing in Flanders and of the Fédération Cycliste Wallonie-Bruxelles (FCWB), which governs the cycle racing in Wallonia and Brussels. Belgium has been one of the major countries in different categories of cycle racing over the years, including road cycling and cyclo-cross. The best Belgian cyclist of all times, Eddy Merckx, nicknamed the Cannibal, has won all of the three grand tours and all of the five monuments of cycling. He also won the UCI Road World Championships three times and set the hour record, among other achievements.
Léon Schots is a Belgian former long-distance runner who competed in track and cross country running competitions. His greatest achievement was a gold medal at the 1977 IAAF World Cross Country Championships, where he also led Belgium to the team title.
Remco Evenepoel is a Belgian professional cyclist who currently rides for UCI WorldTeam Soudal–Quick-Step.
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