D
Davide Tosi
Guest
Last weekend was a great moment for Belgian sports. On Saturday, Justine Henin defeats fellow
Belgian Kim Clijsters in the final of tennis Australian Open to conquer her third Grand Slam title
in less than a year. On Sunday, Bart Wellens outsprints fellow Belgian Mario de Clerq in X-country
cycling World Championship to retain the title that he already won last year.
While it's clear that Justine is far more popular than Bart on a world wide basis, I wonder who is
seen as a bigger sport hero in their homeland of Belgium. All in all, cycling is a more popular and
traditional sport than tennis in Belgium. One thing that struck me was that not only there were more
Belgian fans attending the X-country WC event in France than there were atteding the Melbourne
match, which can be easily explained by the proximity of France vs the long distance that separates
Belgium from Oz, but that there were also many more Belgian fans in the XC race than there were last
April in Paris (same country, France) for the first Henin vs Clijsters Grand Slam final match-up.
This makes me think that, while Justine is for sure a bigger media darling, for the average Belgian
sports fan, Bart Wellens is someone to be more proud of. What is the opinion of the Belgians on
this matter?
Belgian Kim Clijsters in the final of tennis Australian Open to conquer her third Grand Slam title
in less than a year. On Sunday, Bart Wellens outsprints fellow Belgian Mario de Clerq in X-country
cycling World Championship to retain the title that he already won last year.
While it's clear that Justine is far more popular than Bart on a world wide basis, I wonder who is
seen as a bigger sport hero in their homeland of Belgium. All in all, cycling is a more popular and
traditional sport than tennis in Belgium. One thing that struck me was that not only there were more
Belgian fans attending the X-country WC event in France than there were atteding the Melbourne
match, which can be easily explained by the proximity of France vs the long distance that separates
Belgium from Oz, but that there were also many more Belgian fans in the XC race than there were last
April in Paris (same country, France) for the first Henin vs Clijsters Grand Slam final match-up.
This makes me think that, while Justine is for sure a bigger media darling, for the average Belgian
sports fan, Bart Wellens is someone to be more proud of. What is the opinion of the Belgians on
this matter?