Belgium at the 2026 Winter Olympics: Hefty delegation raises high hopes
Belgium may not be a traditional winter sports nation, but it left the 2022 Winter Olympics in Beijing with two medals. It is looking to do even better at the 2026 Games in Milan-Cortina, with several disciplines offering realistic medal prospects. Today, Belga English looks at Belgium’s past performances at the Winter Games and its overall chances for medals in February.
Just over a month before the kick-off of the Winter Olympics, on 6 February, it looks like Belgium may be able to send a record delegation of around 30 athletes to Italy. That’s a huge increase from the decades until the 2018 games of PyeongChang, South Korea, when the team generally had fewer than 10. In 1972, 1988 and 1998, there was just a single athlete to defend the country’s honour.
Belgium has stepped up its game since then. Team Belgium had 22 athletes in PyeongChang and 19 in Beijing in 2022. The further expansion compared to those previous two games is mainly due to the selection of teams.
Quantity and quality
In biathlon, Belgium has three relay teams – men’s, women’s and mixed. In short track, there are two relay teams and in speed skating, a women’s relay team may be added (but these three skaters have also qualified individually). Belgium will send two figure skaters instead of one and the team also has a participant in a new sport on the Olympic programme: ski mountaineering.
With a possible record delegation in terms of quantity, Belgium also has high hopes of scoring strongly on quality.
The bar was raised four years ago, when the country won two medals: gold for speed skater Bart Swings in the mass start event and bronze for short track speed skater Hanne Desmet in the 1,000m.
To illustrate how exceptional a feat this was: Belgium had previously only won six medals in the history of the Winter Games, which have been held since 1924. Before Swings in 2022, the only gold medal for the country was won by the figure skating duo Micheline Lannoy and Pierre Baugniet in Sankt Moritz, Switzerland, in 1948.
Team Belgium also has two silver medals in its trophy cabinet, thanks to Bart Swings in 2018 and the men’s bobsleigh team in in 1948. Apart from Hanne Desmet, three other athletes or teams have won bronze: speed skater Bart Veldkamp in 1998, figure skater Robert Van Zeebroeck in 1928 and the men’s bobsleigh team in 1924.
Swings and Desmet are also the leaders of the current delegation, but they aren't carrying the hopes of the nation alone. Maximilien Drion and Kim Meylemans have been performing exceptionally in the run-up to the Olympics, in ski mountaineering and skeleton respectively.
Desmet’s brother Stijn could follow in her footsteps, if all goes well, and surprises in other disciplines cannot be ruled out. The ambition to do better than in Beijing therefore seems justified.
"That policy is now bearing fruit, just as it has in summer sports"
According to Olav Spahl, head of the Belgian delegation, the fact that Belgium has made clear progress as a winter sports country in recent years is due to a strong generation of talented athletes combined with bigger investments and a targeted elite sports policy.
“That policy is now bearing fruit, just as it has in summer sports,” Spahl said in an interview with Knack.
The policy for winter sports follows the same line as that for summer sports, with similar preconditions, supported programmes and clear selection criteria for athletes.
Spahl: “The focus is on long-term strategies. In disciplines such as short track and long track speed skating, six to eight-year policy plans form the basis, aimed at more and better performing athletes at the Games.”
He also emphasised the internationalisation of training programmes. In recent years, Belgian short track speed skaters have trained not only in the Netherlands but also in Canada and Hungary. According to Spahl, this exposes them to different contexts and higher performance levels. “That is clearly paying off,” he told Knack.
The presentation of the official Team Belgium outfit for the Milano-Cortina Winter Olympics © BELGA PHOTO DIRK WAEM
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