From athletes and musicians to politicians and train conductors, the past 12 months have seen Belgians from all walks of life make the headlines on the national and international stage.
Here are a few of the country's personalities who, sometimes unwittingly, made their mark on 2025:
Laurent Simons
Last month, the child prodigy officially became a doctor in physics, having successfully defended his thesis at the University of Antwerp at the age of 15.
Simons, who was already making headlines in 2022 when he completed a bachelor’s degree in physics in just 18 months, now has his sights set on completing another doctorate. This time, the teenager's research will focus on medical science with a focus on artificial intelligence, with his overarching goal being to create 'super-humans'.
Remco Evenepoel
The Aalst-born cyclist followed up an impressive 2024 season, during which he won two gold medals at the Paris Olympics, by claiming his third consecutive World Championships title last summer in Rwanda. The 25-year-old followed that up with a European Championships time trial victory in October. He was named Belgian sportsman of the year for the fifth time in December, bringing him to within one title of the record held by Eddy Merckx.
Remco Evenepoel pictured in 2024. Credit: Belga via AFP
Ilyass Alba
Belgium’s linguistic divide became an international talking point this summer following a customer's complaint against the SNCB train conductor for his bilingual greeting “Goeiedag, Bonjour” in the Flemish town of Vilvoorde. While the ‘incident’ itself took place at the end of 2024, it drew global attention when the complaint was upheld in July.
Emma Meesseman
The Ypres native was the standout player as the Belgian Cats retained their EuroBasket title this summer, scoring 16 points in the final against Spain. Meesseman, who also won the tournament MVP title for the second time in a row, was crowned Belgium's sportswoman of the year for the second time of her career in December.
Belgium's Emma Meesseman celebrates her team's win. Credit: Virginie Lefour/Belga
Amélie Nothomb
The celebrated French-language author published her 34th novel, Tant mieux, in August. The Etterbeek native was also awarded an honorary doctorate by the Université libre de Bruxelles at the end of the year, the institution at which she earned her degree before moving to Japan.
Damso
The Brussels-based rapper was this year's most-streamed Belgian artist among the country's listeners on Spotify. In May, he released his sixth (and supposedly final) studio album, BĒYĀH, which was the second-most streamed album among Belgians over the past year.
Damso performs at the Les Ardentes music festival in Liege, Friday 08 July 2022. Credit: Belga/Thomas Michiels
Nafissatou Thiam
The heptathlon star, another one of Belgium’s gold medallists last year, dropped out of the World Championships in September amid a spat with the country’s athletics governing bodies. The Brussels-born athlete notably claimed that she was punished for not agreeing to specific sponsorship rules, notably by being denied access to the Belgian team’s pre-World Championships training camp.
The dispute also revealed tensions between the country’s French and Dutch-speaking athletics associations and was the subject of several parliamentary hearings, after which it was decided that a new 'code of conduct' for athletes would be drawn up.
Bart De Wever
The former Antwerp mayor became Belgium’s first Flemish nationalist Prime Minister, taking office in February after protracted coalition talks.
De Wever's first year has been marked by frequent strike action against the 'Arizona' government's austerity plans, while there were instances in which his nationalist convictions clashed with his new position.
His rejection of the EU plan to use the frozen Russian state assets held by Brussels-based Euroclear to finance Ukraine's defence, though, drew praise from both sides of the language border.
