11e Deaflympics in Belgrado 1969

Officially, the Games from 1924 to 1965 were called the International Silent Games in English or Jeux Internationaux Silencieux in French.... From 1969, it was called the World Games for the Deaf

The Games first took place in 1969 in an area under communist rule in Yugoslavia: Belgrade.

1. 189 athletes from 33 countries (Belgium, France, Netherlands, Great Britain, Italy, Austria, Finland, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Switzerland, Greece, Poland, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Hungary, Yugoslavia, East Germany, West Germany, Turkey, Soviet Union, Israel, Japan, Iran, India, Australia, New Zealand, Argentina, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, Canada and the USA) participated in these Games with sports such as athletics, basketball, diving, gymnastics, handball, volleyball, swimming, football, cycling, shooting, table tennis and tennis. Colombia & Venezuela participated in the Pacific Games for the first time

Notable facts were:

for the first time, handball and volleyball featured as new sports!
for the first time more than 1,000 athletes were present, namely 1,189 athletes, a record that was not broken until 1981 in Cologne
at these Games it was the last time diving was offered as a sport.
there were 3 top athletes at these Games:
- Athletics: Josef Foldessy (HUN) in the 100m and 200m,
- Swimming: Frederick Savinsky (USA) with 5 gold medals,
- Gymnastics: Anatoly Vaganov (SOV) with 8 gold medals.
Furthermore, Yugoslavia's football team also shone with a 5th consecutive gold medal as did USA in basketball!
In the medal standings, we saw : the Soviet Union finished in 1st place with 96 medals (40 gold, 34 silver and 22 bronze), while USA came in second with 69 medals (22 gold, 24 silver and 23 bronze) and Italy took 3rd place with 35 medals (14 gold, 9 silver and 12 bronze).

Belgium participated with 30 athletes and did not win a single medal:

Tennis

- Lucien Gerin (°1945) : singles & doubles (with Joseph Goldwirt)
- Joseph Goldwirt (°1920) : Double (with Lucien Gerin)
- Josette Robinson (°1941) : singles (6th place).

Cycling

- Bernard Deschamps (°1934) : Individual time trial (8th place), Individual road race and 1,000m Sprint (9th place).
- Xavier Van Hecke (°1943) : Individual time trial (5th place), Individual road race and 1,000m Sprint.

Basketball with 7th place

Belgium vs Italy = 49-62
Belgium vs USA = 29-57
Belgium vs Yugoslavia = 42-63
Belgium vs Israel = 37-54

Players : Jean-Claude Billen (°1941), Pierre D'hoe (°1940), Pierre Dewit (°1940), Isaak Dorn (°1934), Jean Masfrancx (°1943), Edmond Rousseau (°1941), Roland Van den Bogaert (°1936), Daniel Van Synghel (°1953) and Urbain Werbrouck (°1931).

Football with 14th place

Hungary vs Belgium = 4-3
Netherlands vs Belgium = 3-2
Belgium vs Israel = 3-0

Players : Roger Damoiseau (°1948), Jean-Pierre De Groote (°1948), Amaat De Ro (°1935), Paul De Weerdt (°1946), Werner Deschamps (°1934), Rene Devos (°1942), Georges Dondelinger (°1946), Gustaaf Elsermans (°1941), Marc Engels (°1949), Pierre Laurent (°1946), Jacques Manderick (°1947), Willy Seeuws (°1924), Boni Sempels (°1937), Joseph Van den Bergh (°1943), Etienne Van Weymeersch (°1946) and Christian Vincent (°1956).