Queen Mathilde of the Belgians has visited Fitness Campus Lange Munte, in Kortrijk, Belgium, to show her support for the her country’s Olympians ahead of the Tokyo Games.
Her Majesty travelled to the small town, west of Brussels, to give a final encouragement to the Belgian female basketball team, the Cats, who got their first Olympic qualification to take part in the Tokyo Games.
Queen Mathilde has been very vocal in her support of sports teams, especially during this tough 16 months; sporting a face mask, she is shown in a Twitter video shooting a hoop and being cheered by the entire team.
King Philippe showed his support of both the male and female field hockey teams on the 28th of May, demonstrating that the Royal Family deeply feels for all athletes who saw their routines drastically altered since March of 2020, and many of whom suffered greatly when the 2020 Olympics had to be postponed.
Many European Royal families have started showing their support for Olympic athletes, sending members to training headquarters for various disciplines, in an effort to show support and to send their best wishes to all teams leaving for the Games soon.
The Tokyo Olympic games are set to start on the 23rd July, one year later than originally thought. Many athletes have seen training facilities only just reopened, and in several countries the vaccine rollout seems to have missed the Olympic deadline; coupled with a rising number of infections in Japan, many have started to wonder if it would be okay to postpone the Games again. Authorities in Tokyo are saying that it is out of the question, with the start being so close and the health situation being “under control”.
With the situation being so uncertain, it is not yet known if public will be allowed to witness Olympic competitions, and that goes for Royals as well. We have seen many Royals in Olympic stands before, but for these Games, it seems more and more unlikely.
