Sports in Belgium

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When you mention sport in Belgium, you immediately think of the "Diables Rouges" (Red Devils), the national football team. As season ticket-holders to the World Cup qualifiers, in June 2002 the Diables Rouges played in their sixth consecutive final stage. They even struck fear into the hearts of Brazil, future victors of the supreme event.  

But sport in Belgium means much more than that. It also means cycling, the second national sport, in which we've lost count of the number of our legendary champions, starting with  Eddy Merckx, who has risen to the status of living legend in cycling. It also means motocross and judo, disciplines teeming with Belgian world champions. It means tennis, in which our fellow countrymen and women, including Justine Henin and Kim Clijsters, compete with the best in the world. Finally, a whole series of champions play for our country in sports as varied as motor racing, athletics, triathlon, table tennis, pétanque (bowls) and billiards, among others.

But sport in Belgium means, above all, tens of thousands of young people and amateurs who pursue their particular passion at their own pace, a long way from the top.

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Belgium Tourism