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Bloody Belgians!

nealbie

CF Legend
A game played between myself and Stone Cold quite frequently with little success is the "name a famous Belgian" game. We adapted this in Sweden to Swedish and Finnish people to greater degrees of success! :lol:

In order to qualify for a nomination you have to have done something world-beating on a global or continental stage. So in the case of sports persons that's a World or European Championship (so NO Belgian footballers count); in the case of Scientists Nobel Prizes, etc etc.

So to start you off I give you.....

Jacky Ickx - SIX times winner of the Le Mans 24 Houres Race. And was the most successful driver in this prestigious annual endurance race until 2005 when Danish driver, Tom Kristensen, won for a 7th time!

He was also an F1 driver with moderate success.

Although he only won Le Man four times, Olivier Gendebien also gets a mention.


Jean Claude Van Damme became the European Kickboxing Champion in 1979, and.....

Kim Clijsters - former Women's World No. 1 in Tennis.






Whoever gets the most by this date next year will get a special prize of me (unless I win of course). I will update the original post with scores every so often.

So how many "Bloody Belgians" can you name? :p










Scores

1. nealbie - 4
 
Poirot. There you go, I said it. Even though it doesn't count since he's NOT a real inspector, and is infact played by David Suchet, it just had to be said.

Everyone else probably thought of him straight away anyway :p
 
Eddy Merckx, five times winner of the Tour de France
Adolphe Sax, inventor of the saxophone
Herge (Georges Remi) , the creator of TinTin
Audrey Hepburn, actress
Plastic Bertrand, punk/rock singer of 'Ca Plane Pour Moi' fame
Peter Paul Rubens, baroque painter
Rene Magritte, surrealist painter
George Lemaitre, astronomer who invented the Big Bang theory
Albert Claude, the first biochemist to isolate a cancer cell
Leo Hendrik Baekeland, the inventor of bakelite
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Enigma Shadow said:
Poirot. There you go, I said it. Even though it doesn't count since he's NOT a real inspector, and is infact played by David Suchet, it just had to be said.

Everyone else probably thought of him straight away anyway :p

:roll:



I warned it was difficult :p

Some goon's clearly just going to go on wiki and find world-beating Belgians though! Spoilsports! ¬¬

Oh wait.... who knew? :lol:
 
Bertrand Gachot
Thierry Boutsen
Eric van de Poele
Philip Adams.

All F1 drivers and all champions in motor racing formulee, before you say they never won the world championship.
 
Marc didn't read the rules properly :p

Plus.... Gachot's not Belgian and van de Poele never even won a race, let alone the title and Boutsen never won the championship, despite winning.

Therefore, not world beaters ;) .



I told you all it was a hard game.... even with the internet at your disposal :lol:
 
They are all winners of f3000, f2 and British f3 and f3000 :)

Back then F3000 was a very big deal and was on the world stage. Up to you if you count it or not.

They still all won big titles Neal.

And Gachot is from there btw, he had a dual passport but was born there.
 
It's not the pinnacle of their profession though Marc, that would mean I'd have to count EVERY Belgian footballer who's won a game of football. It'd just be madness. Read the rules :p .

And I know for a fact Gachot is from Luxembourg ;) .
 
See, I almost got spited by Ickx when I went to research my original post.... but Le Mans is the pinnacle of endurance racing. So it's the same as winning the WDC in F1. Plus he did it 6 times.

And before other people claim them..... Lucien Bianchi and Paul Frere also won the Le Mans 24 Hours but were born in Italy and France respectively. But raced as Belgians..... purely out of sympathy I'm guessing :lol:

The closest you got was with Gachot, because he also won. But was born in Luxembourg :p
 
Do not see it like that sorry Neal. Winning a GP is the same in my view as you have still taken on drivers from round the world etc.

I know what you mean though, but if you count that you have to count an F1 win.

Anyway :)
 
Eric van de Poele has won the Spa 24 hours five times (which is a record) and that's international.

I say give him the points, Neal.
 
Yes, a fair point. Van der Poele can have points! I'm assuming Martyn agrees that Le Mans winners count on the same level as F1 World Champions, not race winners? :p
 
Sort of...

It can get very vague though, seeing as you then get the questions of the Sebring 12 hours, Petit Le Mans, 'Ring 24 and all that, and is it just overall winners or class winners?

Check out all the Belgian flags on the overall winners of the Zolder 24 hours, for example...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/24_Hours_of_Zolder

Oh and, Anthony Kumpen and Kurt Mollekens won the 2009 Spa 24 hours, and Anthony Kumpen was apparently voted Belgium's second sexiest sportsman in 2008 or 2009, I forget.

That's almost as good as being France's second best racing driver...

Kumpen is a pretty mega driver actually. I think he came second overall in FIA GT last year.
 
Moving this to Forum (not so much) Fun.

I'm assuming it will fit in there better? I never actually go in there myself as it's rubbish.
 
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