Olympic Gold for Belgium Trivia Quiz

Answer: Tennis

Justine Henin was born in 1982. In 1999 she started her professional tennis career. The Belgian team with Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters won the Fed Cup in 2001, the first victory ever for Belgium in any of the team competitions for national teams in tennis. Henin also reached her first Grand Slam final in the singles competition in 2001, at Wimbledon. In 2003 Henin reached the top ranking in singles matches. She also won two Grand Slam titles: the French Open and the US open, both finals against her compatriot Kim Clijsters. Henin also won the 2004 Australian Open, once again defeating Kim Clijsters.

In 2004 Justine Henin represented Belgium at the Olympic Games. After winning the quarter finals against the French Mary Pierce and the semi-finals against the Russian Anastasia Myskina, Henin faced the French Amelie Mauresmo in the finals. Up to the finals, both had lost only one set in six matches. Henin won the final in two sets and thus became the first Belgian gold medallist in tennis. Henin continued to win, winning three consecutive French Open titles (2005-2006-2007) and the US Open once (2007). She retired from professional tennis in 2008 just before the French Open, but made a brief comeback (2010-2011) without further Grand Slam finals victories. Henin was praised for her complete mastery of the game, and was one of the very few women who used the single-handed backhand as a formidable weapon - although she scored even more points in her career with the forehand stroke.

Answer: Field Hockey

Dohmen was born in 1988 and started playing field hockey for the Belgian national team (the Red Lions) in 2004. He made his Olympic debut in 2008, when the Red Lions finally qualified after many years - the last time in the XXth Century that the Belgian team made the cut, was in 1976. Dohmen played as a midfielder and Belgium ended at position 9, defeating Canada. In 2012 the Red Lions (including John-John Dohmen) progressed to the fifth place, before Spain. In 2016 John-John Dohmen won his first Olympic medal with the Red Lions: they won the group stage, defeated India in the quarter finals and the Netherlands in the semi-finals. But in the finals Argentina was too strong for the Red Lions.

The 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games (postponed to 2021 because of the Covid-19 pandemic) saw John-John Dohmen competing for the fourth consecutive time. He and his team were the favourite in pool B, while Australia was the favourite team in pool A. And indeed Belgium won pool B, with victories against the Netherlands (3-1), Germany (3-1), South Africa (9-4) and Canada (9-1) and a draw against Great-Britain (2-2). In the quarter finals Belgium defeated Spain (3-1), and in the semi-finals they won against India (Dohmen scoring the last goal, 2-5). The finals against Australia ended in a draw after the regular time (1-1), but Belgium won the penalty shoot-out (3-2). Out of the 18 players who played for the Red Lions at Tokyo 2020, I chose John-John Dohmen as the player with the most caps for the team: he was the first of the gold winning team to play in more than 400 international matches.

Answer: Judo

Ulla Werbrouck was born in 1972. She won the European youth championships in 1988 and 1989 and became youth world champion in 1990. In 1992 she made her debut at the Olympic Games, with a 9th place. In 1996 she competed once again in the women's half-heavyweight (up to 72 kg). She defeated the Russian Svetlana Galante and the Spanish Cristina Curto. In the semi-finals she defeated the Ukrainian Tetiana Beliayeva, and in the finals she faced the Japanese Yoko Tanabe - a rematch of the semi-finals in the 1995 World Championship. Werbrouck defeated Tanabe and thus secured a gold medal for Belgium - the first ever Belgian gold medal in the Olympic judo competition for women. Only Robert Van de Walle had previously won a gold medal in judo for Belgium, in 1980.

Werbrouck would again compete at the Olympic Games of 2000, but then she lost her first match against the Spanish Ursula Martin. Via the repechage she made it to the bronze finals, but she lost this match to the South-Korean Cho Min-Sun. Werbrouck retired from professional judo in 2002.

Answer: Cycling

Van Avermaet was born in 1985. After having played soccer for a while, he took up road cycling. He turned professional in 2007. In 2008 he won one stage and the points classification in the Vuelta d'Espana (the Spanish stage race, one of the three most renowned stage races). In 2015 he won a team time trial stage and an individual stage in the Tour de France. In 2016 he won another stage in the Tour de France, but his best moment was yet to come.

In the the men's road race at the 2016 Olympics, Belgium had not one of the favourites. Before the start, connoisseurs expected a victory of one of the following: Alejandro Valverde and Joaquim Rodriguez for Spain, Vincenzo Nibali for Italy, Chris Froome (the winner of the Tour de France) for the UK and Julian Alaphilippe for France. At the last climb, three cyclists took the lead: the Colombian Sergio Henao, the Pole Rafal Majka and Nibali. After a short gap followed Sergio Rodriguez, the Brit Geraint Thomas, Greg Van Avermaet, the Dane Jacob Fuglsang, the South-African Louis Meintjes, the Kazakh Andrey Zeits and the Italian Fabio Aru. But Nibali and Henao made a fall in the last descent, as well as GEraint Thomas. Majka seemed to go for gold, but he somehow could not maintain his speed and soon Van Avermaet and Fuglsang overtook him. Van Avermaet won the sprint for the gold, Fuglsang won the silver medal and an exhausted Majka came just in time for the bronze medal.

Answer: Gymnastics

Nina Derwael was born in 2000. She made her international debut as a junior in 2014 and turned professional in 2016. At the 2016 Olympics she ended 19th in the finals all-round. From 2017 onwards, she started a streak of medals: twice gold in the European championships (2017-2018) on the uneven bars and once European gold on the balance beam (2019), bronze (2017) and twice gold (2018-2019) in the World Championship on the uneven bars.

At the Olympic Games 2020 in Tokyo, Derwael led the Belgian team to an eighth place all-round and took the sixth place all-round individually.

But most impressive was her golden medal in the uneven bars, before Anastasia Ilyankova representing the Russian Olympic Committee and Sunisa Lee from the USA.

Answer: Sailing

Leon Huybrechts was born in 1876 and died in 1956. He started his sailing career at the Olympics of 1908 in a team of three men sailing the 6m boat. Belgium finished second. In 1920 Leon Huybrechts once again sailed in the 6m boat, with two other co-sailors than in 1908. And once again Huybrechts' team came in second (after another Belgian team).

For the Olympic Games in Paris 1924 Leon Huybrechts changed to the French national monotype, a boat for individual competitors. The sailing competition at the Olympic Games in Paris 1924 consisted of three events. In the monotype event (individual sailors), 17 countries had one athlete each. The organization had provided eight similar boats, and thus there were qualifying rounds. In the first qualifying round, Huybrechts, the Fin Hans Ditmar and the Swede Clarence Hammar secured a position for the finals. The other sailors who qualified for the finals were Henrik Robert for Norway, Santiago Cansino for Spain, Johan Hin for the Netherlands, Gordon Fowler for Great-Britain and Frederico Burnay for Portugal. The finals were held in two races. Huybrechts won both finals and thus claimed the gold medal. In the first final Norway took second place, followed by Spain and Finland, while in the second final Finland took the third place, followed by Spain and Norway. This meant that Norway, Finland and Spain tied, and they had to compete in an improvised sail-off to determine who took the other medals. At last Henrik Robert took the silver to Norway and Hans Ditmar claimed the bronze for Finland.

Answer: Athletics

Nafissatou Thiam was born in 1994. She started athletics when she was seven years old and soon specialized in the multi-event competitions, especially the heptathlon. Thiam made her debut at the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro. At these games, the British Jessica Ennis-Hill (defending Olympic champion) and the Canadese Brianne Theisen Eaton were deemed the favourites before the start of the heptathlon.

Ennis-Hill won the first event, the 100 m hurdles, before Akela Jones from Barbados and Nadine Visser from the Netherlands. Thiam ended 12th.
In the next event, the high jump, Thiam and the British Katarina Johnson-Thompson outdid the competition by clearing 1,98 m. Jones and Ennis-Hill both cleared 1,89 m. Thus the overall score after two events was Johnson-Thompson taking the lead before Thiam and Ennis-Hill. The third event, the shot put, was again won by Thiam, who thus moved to a provisional first place. Ennis-Hill took the second place in the overall score, and Jones the third. The last event on the first day was the 200 m. Johnson-Thompson won and Ennis-Hill regained the first place overall, before Thiam and Jones.

The second day started with the long jump, won by Thiam. Overall Thiam retook the lead before Ennis-Hill and Johnson-Thompson. The penultimate event was the javelin throw, won by the Latvian Laura Ikauniece-Admidina. With a third place in this event Thiam retained the lead overall, before Ennis-Hill and Theisen Eaton. The final event was the 800m, won by the American Heather Miller-Koch. With a personal best time Thiam secured the gold medal overall, before Jessica Ennis-Hill and Brianne Theisen Eaton.

At the next Olympic Games (Tokyo 2020) Thiam claimed gold once again, with event victories in the high jump, the long jump and the javelin throw. She was only the second heptathlete to defend her Olympic title successfully, after the American Jackie Joyner-Kersee (Olympic champion in 1988 and 1992).

Answer: Swimming

Fred Deburghgraeve was born in 1973. He started swimming when he was eight years old and specialized in the 100m and 200m breast stroke. His first international success was a bronze medal on the World Championships in 1994. In 1995 he won gold in the 100 m and bronze in the 200 m at the European Championships.

But his major achievement came in the Olympic Games in 1996.
Qualifications were held in six heats. The eight best times overall qualified for the final A (places 1-8), the next eight for the final B (place 9-16). Before the start of the qualifications the Olympic record was 1:01:50 (by the American Nelson Diebel, who did not participate in the 1996 Olympics) and the world record 1:00:95 (by the Hungarian Karoly Guttler). In the fourth heat the American Jeremy Linn came close to the Olympic record, with a time of 1:01:53.

But in the sixth heat Deburghgraeve swam a new world record, at 1:00:60.
In the finals Deburghgraeve finished with a time of 1:00:65, just before Linn at 1:00:77 (a U.S. record) and the German Mark Warnecke (1:01:33, a German national record). Deburghgraeve was the first Belgian ever to win gold in swimming at the Olympics.

Answer: Figure skating

Micheline Lannoy (born 1925) and Pierre Baugniet (1925-1981) concentrated on the pairs routine in figure skating. Together they won the Belgian competition in four consecutive years (1944-1947), the European Championships in 1947, the World Championships in 1947 and 1948.

At the Olympic Winter Games in 1948 fifteen pairs were selected for the figure skating finals. The Czech pair Blazena Knittlova - Karel Vostaka withdrew from the competition. Lannoy - Baugniet claimed gold, before the Hungarian team Andrea Kekesy - Ede Kiraly and the Canadian entry Suzanne Morrow - Wallace Diestelmeyer. Lannoy and Baugniet were the very first Belgians ever to win gold at the Olympic Winter Games.

Answer: Archery

Hubert Van Innis (1866-1961) was an archer who competed in two Olympic Games: Paris 1900 and Antwerp 1920. In 1900 France, Belgium and the Netherlands competed in the archery contests. There are few reliable sources about the competitors and their results, apart from the medallists. The French won 13 of the 20 medals, and the Belgians took the other 7. Hubert Van Innis was the first Belgian ever to win multiple gold medals: he won gold on both events at 33 m (au chapelet - probably fixed targets, and au cordon doré - probably elevated targets on poles) and two more silver medals.

In 1920 Van Innis once again competed at the Olympic Games. Once again only French, Dutch and Belgian archers entered the competition. Hubert Van Innis took gold in the individual competitions at the moving bird, defeating the French Julien Brulé at 33m and the French Léonce Quentin at 28m. At 50 m, Brulé won gold and Van Innis silver. In the team competitions at the moving bird, the Belgian team (with Van Innis) won gold at 50m and 33m and silver (after the Netherlands) at 28m. Van Innis thus became the very first archer ever to win six gold medals or ten medals in total at the Olympic Games.