2016 Olympics at Rio Photo by Bryan Godfrey from Flickr.com
Last week, the Olympic Games began in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Both Belgium and the Netherlands have athletes competing in a variety of sports, and both countries had a pretty good start.
The Nederlandse Olympische Ploeg consists of 242 athletes competing in 22 different sports including turnen, handbal, boogschieten, paardensport, and wielersport. During Sunday’s cycling race, the Dutch cycler Annemiek van Vleuten was in the lead. During the decent, van Vleuten was cycling so fast that even the cameras lost track of her. It seemed the gold medal was for her. Moments after a camera could follow her again, she lost control during a curve and suffered a terrible fall. The second place quickly got ahead and it seemed that the Dutch would have no gold, until the last 500 meters of the race when Anna van der Breggen passed the American, Italian and Swedish cyclists. Van Vleuten is okay and recovering.
There are high hopes for the Nederlandse Ploeg after the very successful Olympic games in London in 2012 when the ploeg brought back 20 medals. The estimate for these games is 24. For more information about the Dutch team, visit the official website.
Belgium is also at the Rio Olympic games with 108 athletes in 19 different sports including gewichtheffen, kanovaren, roeien, and zeilen. The Belgian team also has one gold medal thanks to Greg van Avermaet who won the men’s individual cycling road race. To find out more information about the Belgian team, visit the official website.
https://youtu.be/Xjou1Ew-AAk
Who are you cheering for?
UPDATE
As of August 17, 2016, the Dutch have won 8 gold medals, 3 silver and 3 bronze, and the Belgian team has won 2 gold, 1 silver and 2 bronze.
Since I was a little girl, I was fascinated with languages and writing. I speak English, Spanish, Italian, Dutch and a little bit of French. I am a writer, reader, language teacher, traveler, and a food lover!
I now live in The Netherlands with my husband Riccardo, our cat Mona, and our dog Lisa, and the experience has been phenomenal. The Dutch culture is an exciting sometimes topsy-turvy world that I am happily exploring!
