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Belgium at the 1998 Winter Olympics
IOC code	BEL
NOC	Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee
Website	www.olympic.be (in Dutch and French)
in Nagano
Competitors	1 in 1 sport
Flag bearer	Conrad Alleblas
Medals Ranked 22nd	Gold 0 Silver 0 Bronze 1 Total 1
Winter Olympics appearances (overview)
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Belgium sent a delegation to compete at the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan from 7–22 February 1998. The nation was represented by only one athlete, speed skater Bart Veldkamp. He won a bronze medal in the men's 5,000 metres race. With that bronze medal, Belgium finished in joint 22nd place on the medal table.

Background

Belgium has been participating in the Olympic movement almost since the beginning, with their first appearance coming at the 1900 Summer Olympics in Paris. They have competed in every Winter Olympic Games except for the 1960 and 1968 editions. Coming into Nagano, they had won four medals in Winter Olympic competition, but none since the 1948 Winter Olympics. The only Belgian representative to qualify for Nagano was speed skater Bart Veldkamp, who had previously won medals in the 10,000 metres race in both Albertville and Lillehammer. Due the fact that Veldkamp was scheduled to compete in the 5,000 meter event the following day, and was the only athlete from Belgium at the games, his coach Conrad Alleblas, was chosen as the flag bearer for the opening ceremony.

Medalists

Medal	Name	Sport	Event	Date
Bronze	Bart Veldkamp	Speed skating	Men's 5000 m	February 8

With one bronze medal, Belgium ranked a joint 22nd in the medal table.

Competitors

The following is the list of number of competitors in the Games.

Speed skating

Bard Veldkamp was 30 years old at the time of the Nagano Olympics. Although Veldkamp was born in the Netherlands, he chose to take Belgian nationality in 1996 to make it easier to qualify for major competitions. Veldkamp had won gold for the Netherlands at the 1992 Winter Olympics and bronze for the Netherlands at the 1994 Winter Olympics, and would go on to represent Belgium at the 2002 Winter Olympics and the 2006 Winter Olympics. On 8 February, he took part in the 5,000 metres race. He went out early and set a new world record, only for two more world records to be set that day, leaving him in third place and the winner of the bronze medal. On 12 February, despite being a distance specialist, he participated in the 1,500 metres, and finished 17th with a time of 1 minute and 51.73 seconds. In the 10,000 metres, on 17 February, he skated in the final pairing, and finished fourth with a time of 13 minutes and 29 seconds, which was less than a second and a half behind the bronze medal time.

Event	Athlete	Race
		Time	Rank
1500 m	Bart Veldkamp	1:51.73	17
5000 m	Bart Veldkamp	6:28.31
10,000 m	Bart Veldkamp	13:29.69	4

References

1. ^ "Belgium". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 3 July 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
2. "Bart VELDKAMP – Olympic Speed skating – Belgium". International Olympic Committee. Archived from the original on 26 March 2017. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
3. "Les porte-drapeaux belges lors de la cérémonie d'ouverture des Jeux Olympiques d'hiver" (in French). Belga. 23 January 2018. Archived from the original on 15 July 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
4. ^ "Belgium at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 11 February 2018. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
5. "1998 Nagano Winter Games". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 25 April 2009. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
6. Belgium at the 1998 Winter Olympics
7. "Koss Tests Clap Skates, for the Record". The Washington Post. 20 February 1998. p. C10. Archived from the original on 16 February 2002. Retrieved 14 July 2018.
8. "Bart Veldkamp Bio, Stats, and Results". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
9. "Speed Skating at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's 5,000 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 2 July 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
10. "Speed Skating at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's 1,500 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 14 January 2018. Retrieved 15 July 2018.
11. "Speed Skating at the 1998 Nagano Winter Games: Men's 10,000 metres". Sports Reference. Archived from the original on 10 June 2017. Retrieved 15 July 2018.

• Nations at the 1998 Winter Olympics
• Belgium at the Winter Olympics by year
• 1998 in Belgian sport