(Belga) Team Belgium will be strong with 75 athletes representing nineteen sports on the occasion of the 11th edition of the World Games which will take place from July 7 to 17 in Birmingham, Alabama (United States). The Belgian delegation, which was presented on Wednesday evening in Brussels, will include 110 people signed “that non-Olympic sport is also taken seriously by the Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee”, as Olav Spahl, the sports director of high level at the COIB.

The Belgians do not intend to make up the numbers in these “Non-Olympic Sports Games”. Four years ago in Wroclaw, the 63 athletes present in 12 disciplines had achieved a veritable harvest of podiums with a record of 7 gold, 9 silver and 8 bronze medals. “It is difficult to set goals this year because the absence of Russia and Belarus changes the cards,” said Belga Olav Spahl again. The figurehead of the delegation is a certain … Bart Swings. The Olympic champion of the Beijing Olympics this winter in the mass start speed skating event returns to his first love by competing in no less than five roller skating events. These will be his third “World Games” after Cali and Wroclaw. He has already won four gold medals, two silver and one bronze in this inline roller skating. He is the first Olympic champion to come and compete in the World Games. They will bring together some 3,600 athletes from 100 countries in 34 disciplines, plus five in demonstration. (Belgian)