Whodunit Wednesday: Tom Boon and Xan de Waard

Hockey - not ice hockey, but the real hockey. It is played on a field with a ball and sticks. Looks a bit like ice hockey - without the ice, without the huge padding and ice skates, without the fighting. Both Belgium and the Netherlands are world powers when it comes to field hockey and recently one name rose to the top. 

Tom Boon is an “old” player. Just like in so many sports, age is relative. Aaron Rodgers is still making waves in the NFL, albeit at Pittsburgh instead of Green Bay. For hockey players 35 years old is definitely not young. Tom Boon has been the vedette scorer for the Belgian national team for quite some time. The Belgian men won the World Cup (2018), the European Cup (2019) and the Olympics (2021).   

The World Cup of hockey is even played about an hour from here, just outside of Antwerp - in Boom. By the way, the Dutch (or Flemish) words with a double “o” in the middle are pronounced with the “o” sound. A Dutchman commented to me long ago, “I don’t understand you Americans. It is easy in Dutch. If one “o” is “o” then two “o’s” should be “ooo” (making a rounded “o” sound a bit longer). Where do you get this “ew” or “oo” when you say the word “book”?” So Tom Boon (whose name means Tom Bean) plays in Boom (which means tree). 

However one pronounces his name, Boon has just won the prestigious World Player of the Year 2025. On the women’s side, Dutchwoman Xan de Waard won for the second time. And the Dutch women are a definite force in the game. They have won 4 of the last 5 Olympics and 4 of the last World Cups. So the next time you are watching hockey, check out this hockey and know that either the Netherlands or Belgium, whether it is the men’s or women’s competition, will be in the running. 

(Photo of Tom Boon in white playing against Germany)

Whodunit Wednesday: Eddy Merckx and Remco Evenepoel

Belgium and The Netherlands are cycling countries. Every Saturday and Sunday we can see the groups of cyclists flits by along our canal. When we had the dog and went walking, we always had to watch out - although you can hear these groups coming from afar. Even though they are bicycling quite fast, they seem to be going at a normal pace for them, gabbing as they pedal. 

Anyone who follows cycling knows the name Eddie Merckx. Many other names may also come to mind (from various countries), but this is the one almost every cyclist will mention. That is because he won the Giro d’Italia 5 times, The Tour de France 5 times, the Vuelta once and he was world champion 3 times. He had 521 total wins and was known as the best cyclist of his generation. 

This past year Remco Evenepoel did something amazing. In 2023 he became only the 2nd cyclist in history to win the road race and the time trial in the World Championships. At the Olympics this summer he won the gold medal at both the time trial and the road race despite getting a tire puncture. He is the first man to win both gold medals. 

Evenepoel surpassing some of what Merckx did is like when Hank Aaron surpassed Babe Ruth. And this by a young man who was also played soccer for Anderlecht and the under 16’s for the Belgian national team before putting all of his energy into cycling. To live in a time when you see history being made is amazing. 

Whodunit Wednesday: The ladies of sport

This will be quite the summer of sport. The European Cup (men’s soccer) is being held in Germany in from the middle of June to the middle of July. About two weeks later the Olympics start in Paris. And of course the normal summer sports are also taking place: the Tour de France, Wimbledon and more. 

Women’s basketball is big news in the US recently with Caitlin Clark, but it has also been big news in Belgium for the last few years. The Belgian Cats (the woman’s national basketball team) grabbed the bronze medal at the European Championships in 2021 and then won the European championships last year, beating favorite Spain. 

In the last Olympics in Tokyo, the Cats lost out to Japan. This year they are also in the group with the US, Japan and Germany. But they will depend on two players who have also been making a name for themselves in the WNBA: Emma Meesseman and Julie Vanloo. 

Emma was crowned WNBA champion with the Washington Mystics in 2019. Since 2022 she has played for Chicago Sky. Julia Vanloo, a 3-point specialist, has joined the Washington Mystics this year and has already made her mark. 

In athletics, Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone has been making recent news in the 400 meter and 400 meter hurdles. She is the reigning Olympic champion in the hurdles. But she will have to deal with Femke Bol who has taken the spotlight more recently. Bol won the bronze medal in Tokyo to Machlaughlin’s gold. But in 2023 Bol has taken all of the indoor medals and records, leading up to an exciting showdown at the Olympics this summer. 

In gymnastics, all eyes will of course continue to be on Simone Biles. But in Belgium,

everyone still knows Nina Derwael. She has taken gold medals (even from Simone Biles) on the beam and especially on the bars. She was world champion in 2018 and 2019 and took the first gold medal for Belgium in gymnastics in Tokyo. She even has a new element named after her.