Only a few days before the end of the Olympic Games, Belgium did not yet have any medal yet and so this seemed to become one of the worst Olympic Games ever for our country. And then it happens: first silver in the 4×100m relay for women and today Tia Hellebaut won gold in the high jump (2.05m). It was 32 years ago that Belgium won a medal in athletics on the Olympic Games.

I currently enjoy watching the Olympic Games very much. Too bad for us Europeans, lots of competitions happen during night, or during the day in the morning and part of the afternoon, when I’m at at work. Luckily, there are great Olympic Games reports on television during the evening too here.

I’m afraid we don’t have to expect much Belgian medals. Mabye our biggest chance is Evi Van Acker in the sailing races. In swimming, we had already several national records, but no-one reached the finals up to now. In equestrian, Belgium got a ninth place (after being 2nd after the first test…). Tomorrow some Belgians participate to the semi-finals in rowing. In tennis we have Olivier Rochus and Rochus & Darcis in the tennis doubles still in competition. The football team will probably also make it to the quarter finals (tomorrow last match in the heats) and we hope to see some great results in athletics of Tia Hellebaut (high jump) and Kim Gevaert (100 and 200m sprint and 4×100m relay). Last Olympic Games, Belgium won 3 medals. As we failed to win any medal in judo now (although we were not far from it), it will be difficult to reach even that number this year…

Oh, and too bad this all happens in a country where people are not always “free”…

PS: for us computer scientists, this is nice: Windows XP crashed during the opening ceremony and produced a nice Blue Screen of Death on the roof of the Olympic Stadium