Heading to the 11th World Games, Team Belgium will be 75 athletes strong representing 19 sports, according to Belga News Agency. The games will be held from 7 to 17 July in Birmingham, Alabama, United States.
The delegation, 110 people in total, was presented on Wednesday, 29 June, in Brussels. With the growing number of athletes representing Belgium, the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (COIB) wants to highlight the value of non-Olympic sports, Olav Spahl, the COIB director of high-level sport, said.
The World Games are an international multi-sport event, meant for sports, disciplines or events within a sport, that were not contested in the Olympic Games. A full list of Team Belgium athletes competing at the games can be found here.
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Four years ago, Team Belgium consisted of 63 athletes across 12 disciplines. The team won several accolades: seven gold, nine silver and eight bronze medals.
This year, it is harder to set goals and make predictions on the outcomes of the games. Spahl said that the absence of Russian and Belarussian teams means much could change.
Leading the pack
Bart Swings will be the figurehead of the Belgian delegation. Last winter's mass start speed skating champion of the Beijing Winter Olympics will be competing at the World Games in five roller skating events. This will be the third World Games he has competed in, previously he won four gold, two silver and one bronze medal in inline skating.
Swings is the first Olympic champion to go to the World Games.
The Games will bring together some 3,600 athletes from 100 countries in 34 disciplines in 223 medal events.
