Sport in Belgium plays a prominent role in the society. As of 2010, Belgium counted around 17,000 sport clubs with approximately 1.35 million members, thus 13% of the Belgian population is involved in sport. Popular sports in Belgium are among others football, cycling, tennis, table tennis, athletics, swimming, basketball, badminton, judo, hockey, motocross, auto racing, volleyball and running. Belgium has organized the 1920 Olympic Games in Antwerp as well as the 1972 UEFA European Championship and the 2000 UEFA European Championship along with the Netherlands. The Belgium national football team best result was a 4th place at the 1986 FIFA World Cup and a second place of the 1980 UEFA European Championship. Belgian football clubs have won 3 times the UEFA Cup Winners Cup and twice the UEFA Cup, plus 3 times the UEFA Supercup.
Belgium has won 38 gold medals at Summer Olympic Games as well as 1 medal at Winter Olympic Games for figure skating at the 1948 Winter Olympics in St. Moritz. Among the 37 gold medals at the Summer Olympics, 11 medals were won in archery, 6 in cycling, 4 in equestrian, 3 in athletics and fencing and 2 in sailing and judo. Well-known Belgian olympic champions are Hubert Van Innis and Edmond Cloetens (archery), Gaston Roelants and Tia Hellebaut (athletics), Patrick Sercu and Roger Ilegems (track cycling), Robert Van de Walle and Ulla Werbrouck (judo), Frédérik Deburghgraeve (swimming) and Justine Henin (tennis).
Other well-known Belgian sport champions are Roger Moens, Ivo Van Damme and Kim Gevaert (athletics), Bart Veldkamp (speed skating), Ingrid Lempereur (swimming), Gella Vandecaveye, Heidi Rakels and Harry Van Barneveld (judo), Eddy Merckx, Rik Van Looy, Roger De Vlaeminck, Lucien Van Impe, Johan Bruyneel, Johan Museeuw, Axel Merckx and Tom Boonen (cycling), Raymond Ceulemans (three-cushion billiards), Jacky Ickx and Thierry Boutsen (Formula One), Stefan Everts and Gaston Rahier (motocross) and Jean-Michel Saive (table tennis), Kim Clijsters (tennis), Sven Nys (cyclo-cross) and Vincent Rousseau (running). In team sports, well-known footballers include Jean-Marie Pfaff, Eric Gerets, Enzo Scifo, Michel Preud'homme, Franky Van Der Elst, Luc Nilis and Jan Ceulemans and well-known basketball players include Ann Wauters, Éric Struelens, Axel Hervelle and D. J. Mbenga. International Olympic Committee president Count Jacques Rogge is a Belgian.
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).
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Famous quotes containing the words sport in and/or sport:
“Sport inevitably creates deadness of feeling. No one could take pleasure in it who was sensitive to suffering; and therefore its pursuit by women is much more to be regretted than its pursuit by men, because women pursue much more violently and recklessly what they pursue at all.”
—Ouida [Marie Louise De La Ramée] (1839–1908)
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Where health and plenty cheered the labouring swain,
Where smiling spring its earliest visit paid,
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Dear lovely bowers of innocence and ease,
Seats of my youth, when every sport could please,
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