WE'RE OFF TO THE PARIS OLYMPICS: TENNIS, BADMINTON & WEIGHTLIFTING

11/07/2024

In the run up to the Olympic Games, each week we'll be presenting the athletes who will have the privilege of competing for Belgium in Paris between 26 July and 11 August 2024. We will present them discipline by discipline... Today, we're putting the spotlight on the Belgian athletes who will be attempting to achieve great things with the strength of their arms!

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Tennis:

The precursor to tennis was the "jeu de paume", or "game of the hand", which originated in France in the 11th century. It was played in a monastery courtyard and involved using one's palm to hit a ball against walls. Tennis as we know it today was developed in 19th-century England.

  • Zizou Bergs was born on 3 June 1999 in Lommel, in the province of Limburg. He has been a professional tennis player since 2018, and is currently the highest-ranked Belgian player (82nd in the world). His parents named him Zizou, in homage to the nickname given to the famous French footballer, Zinedine Zidane. He will be lining up as a singles player. 
     
  • Sander Gillé (born on 15 January 1991 in Hasselt, in the province of Limburg) and Joran Vliegen (born on 7 July 1993 in Maaseik, in the province of Limburg) will form the doubles pairing for the tournament.

 

Badminton:

Badminton is a racket sport whose exact origins are still a tantalising mystery. It is said that badminton was first played at the stately home of the Duke of Beaufort in Gloucestershire sometime in the early 1860s and was thus named after his estate: Badminton House. Badminton is played indoors by two opposing players (singles) or two pairs (doubles), who take positions on opposite halves of a court divided by a net. Players don't use a ball but a shuttlecock, a projectile with a crown of feathers in a conical shape. Players must win two games of 21 points to win the match. Two Belgians, one male and one female, will be lining up in the singles:

•             Julien Carraggi (born on 2 July 2000 in Brussels)

•             Lianne Tan (born on 20 November 1990 in Bilzen, in the province of Limburg)
 

Weightlifting:

Weightlifting has been around for thousands of years, yet the objective remains the same: the athlete who lifts the most weight wins. Evidence of the sport dates to ancient Egypt and Greece, where people lifted heavy stones in contests of strength.

Two lifts are used in Olympic competition: the snatch and the clean and jerk.  In the snatch, the bar is lifted from the floor to above the head in one movement. By contrast, the clean and jerk is a two-stage action: the bar is first brought up to the shoulders before being jerked over the head. 

Today, competitors perform both lifts three times, and their best results in each lift are combined to determine their overall score. The competitor with the highest total score is crowned Olympic champion. Men and women will each compete across five weight classes. One Belgian athlete will be taking part in the competition:

•             Nina Sterckx (-49kg): Born on 26 July 2002, this weightlifter from Ghent won silver medals in the snatch, clean and jerk and overall in the under-59kg category at the 2023 European Weightlifting Championships in Yerevan.

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