Belgium and Hockey?

Belgium and Hockey…

Belgium and chocolate, Belgium and beer, Belgium and the European Union, Belgium and Bruges,… yes. But Belgium and Hockey, are you serious?

Everybody in the States (and Canada for that matter) knows that Hockey means ‘the fastest game in the world and it is played on ice‘… In Belgium you will have to add the descriptive “ijs’ or ‘ice’ to make things clear. Hockey is played on grass.

Therefore we are very thankful to the Society for International Hockey Research (SIHR) to have developed – after much research I am sure – the following definition for ice hockey: Hockey is a game played on an ice rink in which two opposing teams of skaters, using curved sticks, trying to drive a small disc into or through the opposing goals… and read rink as being indoor or outdoors.

Many are ignorant about the fact that on December 8, 1908 Belgium became one of the founding member countries of the IIHF, a very long time before Canada or the USA joined in the 1920′s. Things have changed a little since then and according to the IIHF website Belgium counts 1,192 players a stark contrast to the 1 million in North America. But still, Belgium was a founding member!

Continuing on the path of  numbers and comparisons, in Canada out of every 66 Canadians one is a hockey player. In Belgium one will have to assemble 8.728 inhabitants to find 1 hockey player. The others are probably cycling, playing football (=soccer) or aiming at the ‘liggende’ or ‘staande wip’.

At the 1920 Olympics – which were held in Antwerp, as you might have guessed also in Belgium – Ice Hockey and Figure Skating were introduced for the first time. Only 22 sports featured on the Olympic menu in those days and it was a combination of winter and summer sports. The first Winter Olympics were organized in 1924 all the way up in the French Alps in a little village called Chamonix. Tug of war was an Olympic event and the medals went to England, Holland and Belgium.

But getting back onto the subject of Hockey, Canada won its first Olympic gold in Antwerp more than 90 years ago. And yes with history preceding itself, the USA got silver. So, don’t you ever say again that Belgium and Hockey do not go together.

(c) jp kalmeijer