2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro

From top to bottom: a stylised athletic figure, the five Olympic rings and the inscription 'TEAM BELGIUM'. The year 2016 appears to the left; the country code 'BE' to the right, between the Brussels mint mark (the helmeted head of Archangel Michael) and the mint director's mark.

The 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro marked a historic event: for the first time, the Games were held on South American soil. Around 11,000 athletes from more than 200 nations competed in 28 sports, including newly introduced disciplines such as golf and rugby sevens. Belgium sent a broadly composed delegation competing in sports such as archery, cycling, judo and athletics. The Belgian Olympic team, which has competed under the banner "Team Belgium" for decades, looks back on an Olympic tradition dating to the first modern Games of 1896 - Belgium was among the founding nations of the modern Olympic movement and hosted the Games itself in Antwerp in 1920.

Belgium's sporting identity is shaped by a strong cycling tradition, internationally renowned combat-sport athletes, and a growing prominence in football and team sports. At the Rio de Janeiro Games, the country demonstrated that, despite its modest population size, it can compete at world-class level. Flemish and Walloon sports promotion largely run on separate tracks, which makes the Belgian Olympic team one of the few areas where the divided country presents a united front. Belgium marked its participation in the 2016 Games with the issue of a 2-euro commemorative coin, giving visible form to the sense of community surrounding Team Belgium.