BOIC Names Belgian Dressage Team "Team of the Year 2024"

Dressage

Belgium

The Belgian Olympic and Interfederal Committee (BOIC) has named the Belgian Olympic dressage team the "Team of the Year 2024".

At the end of the Olympic Year BOIC held "Team Belgium Awards" and marked specific athletes and performances as stand-out for 2024. The awards were decided by a voting system.

Four awards were handed out and they go to:

Nafi Thiam (decathlon) - Female athlete of the year
Remco Evenepoel (cycling) - Male athlete of the year
Dressage Team (equestrian) - Team of the year
The Miracle of Lille (basketball) - Olympic Moment of the year by Team Belgium fans

The Team of the Year award went to the Belgian dressage team, consisting of Domien Michiels, Larissa Pauluis and Flore De Winne. They finished in a historic fifth place. For the award they were up against the "Belgian Tornados" (sprinters) who became the World Indoor Champions in Glasgow and the "Belgian Cats" (basketball) who came close to defeating the USA, while securing their spot for Paris 2024 in front of a sold-out Sportpaleis crowd. The Cats finished 4th at the Olympics.

In Paris Pauluis repeated the written note to her
deceased husband, which she first showed in Tokyo,
and got much media attention for it

Dressage rider Larissa Pauluis was also nominated for the "Olympic Moment of the Year" but the Belgian cats won the award. Laurissa Pauluis delivered a goosebump-worthy moment with a heartfelt tribute to her late husband, saying, “I did it.” The Belgian Cats (basketball) pulled off the impossible, crushing Japan by 27 points to qualified for the quarter-finals. The third moment people could vote for was Remco Evenepoel who gave everyone a heart attack when, just 3km from the finish and on his way to becoming a double Olympic champion, he had a punctured tire.